For many full-time employees in the United States, the five-day work week, paid overtime and holidays are expected benefits. This wasn’t always so, and many workers’ benefits today are the achievements of labor unions.
Just five decades ago, unions were on the frontline of the fight for the rights and wages of the middle class. But today, unions are on the decline.
After World War II, organized labor represented a third of America’s workforce. Today, only 12 percent of the overall workforce belongs to labor unions both public and private. About 37 percent of the public sector workforce belong to unions as opposed to only 7 percent in the private sector, but they’re now in the cross hairs of cash-strapped states and cities.
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