In the United States the middle class and working families keep getting less and less of the economic pie that they play such a critical role in creating.

Why are workers in Western Europe, Scandinavia, and Australia doing so much better? A key factor is the much higher percentage of workers in these countries who belong to unions. This translates into much greater bargaining power.

Other factors also benefit those workers: universal health care plans put in place by legislation; more generous pension and social security-type programs that dwarf the U.S. Social Security program; and much higher funding of all education.

In fact, by almost all measurements of the well-being of working families, these countries are all far ahead of the United States.

I was recently reminded that in life you get what you are willing to accept or what you are willing to fight for.

It is clear that many right-wing, extremely wealthy individuals and families want all workers to be low-paid, at-will employees.

The institutes and organizations they fund work every day to weaken and eliminate workers’ rights to organize and collectively bargain. They have successfully attacked and almost eliminated defined pension plans. Through the right-wing politicians they support, they have successfully suppressed the minimum wage below poverty level for years. They have withheld and reduced unemployment compensation when it has been most needed by good hardworking families.

These forces can only keep undermining the well-being of working families if we let them. Everyone in society who believes that we should all work hard and share in the wealth we help create needs to actively support workers’ rights to organize and collectively bargain. The higher percentage of workers in unions and covered by collective bargaining agreements, the greater will be the rise in middle class standards for all working families, both union and nonunion.

Remember: In life you get what you are willing to accept, or what you are willing to fight for.




Bob King is president of the United Auto Workers.