That time of income inequality spurred the growth of organized labor. Unions became the nation’s first successful anti-poverty program. They became the ladders that everyday wage earners used to climb out of poverty and into the middle class. They gave a voice to the voiceless in jointly, with management, raising standards of fairness and justice above the levels unilaterally dictated by employers working to “become leaner and meaner.”

The fight to establish workplace rights and safeguards that most wage earners take for granted today was a product of political engagement by literally millions of wage earners led by organized labor.

Each was enacted with support of the American labor movement over the objections of employers who wanted to maintain the status quo. Because each right and safeguard obtained for workers directly or indirectly can increase the cost of doing business, each right and safeguard would become weakened or disappear if labor unions became a thing of the past.

Labor unions exist to introduce meaningful democracy into our nation’s workplaces – and they’ve done so since the birth of our country. Union leaders note that the Declaration of Independence was the result of the First Continental Congress meeting in Carpenter’s Hall.