We're all familiar now with Mitt Romney's point that corporations are people. But you'll never hear him say this: Unions are people, too. As is clear, the strength of middle class America is directly related to the strength of unions.

The power of unions to create prosperity for working families is well recognized: Organized labor is one of the few voices for the economic interests of the middle class in our government. Unions were key to creating and protecting the social safety net (including Social Security and Medicare) and winning major legislative victories for working families such as the Equal Pay Act, the Civil Rights Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act and — most recently — the Affordable Care Act.

And unions ensure that workers are paid fair wages. Unionized workers today make significantly more on than their non-union counterparts — about $2.50 more per hour than an otherwise comparable worker in the typical state according to a recent study by the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

When unions were stronger in the middle part of the last century, American workers wages rose as they became increasingly more productive. But today, as union strength has decreased, this link has broken down: even though American workers grow increasingly more productive, their wages have stagnated. At the same time, more and more income has become concentrated at the very top of the income scale.

Corporations have done much to enrich the world, including poorer people. As much as Standard Oil, for instance, was a giant octopus that ate up its competition, it paid its employees well. Corporations aren't evil, in and of themselves, just as unions aren't evil. Both are tools, organized groups of people in search of a common goal. Corporations and unions should work together in providing the best work environment for all employees. These past thirty years, policy has driven wealth into the hands of the top 1%, which is not a sustainable economic model in the long run. Americans should not forget the power of the union in enriching the middle class, and bringing stability to America's economy. When we're top heavy (40% of all of America's wealth in the top 1%), we're more prone to large crashes when we tip over. Remember the importance of unions. They are people too.