Free Workers by Passing Federal Right to Work Laws
When labor unions were still relevant, Labor Day was a holiday of union-sponsored parades and picnics, a chance to pause from the daily grind and celebrate the strength of solidarity. But today, most people won't even think about labor unions as they go about enjoying what for all practical purposes is the last day of summer. That's because most American workers don't belong to a union and never have. Nor do they want to.
Just 12 percent of employees in the United States are union members. That's down from 20 percent in 1983 and is falling steadily. The loss of manufacturing jobs certainly has hurt Big Labor. But so has its inability to connect with workers employed outside of factories and government offices. Today's worker is more independent, more mobile and more comfortable interacting with his or her employer as an individual, rather than as part of a collective bargaining unit.
