Earlier this year, Bernie Sanders released the most sweeping her labor plan of any candidate to date.

It didn't get a ton of media coverage, but this time I'm not going to argue that it's because of

the Bernie blackout. I think the truth is that labor just isn't seen as sexy to most journalists

and readers, because the average American just doesn't seen as sexy to most journalists and readers because the average American

just doesn't know as much about labor and how labor policies affect their daily lives

like they used to. As we discussed on episode 10 of this podcast, union participation

dipped to a record low in 2018 to 10.5%. If you care about wealth

inequality, this is a huge and under-discussed problem. Why? Well, there is a direct

correlation between high levels of union participation and low levels of inequality.

When union participation peaked in the 1970s at over twice the rate it's at now,

the gap between the incomes at the top and the bottom were narrower than ever.

And for Black Americans, who had finally gained access to labor rights following the civil rights movement of the 1960s, the gains were even greater.

In the 1970s, Black Americans were more than twice as likely as white Americans to be in unions.

And if that were true today, according to a 2012 study, the black-white wage

gap would be nearly 30% lower among women. Union participation is a social justice issue

in addition to an economic justice issue. Higher union participation would help close the racial wealth gap and banning at-will

employment, which only Bernie has a plan to do, would prevent employers in at-will states from

firing employees for discriminatory reasons, something they can do now with impunity, no matter

who the Supreme Court determines as a protected class.

Bernie's worker rights plan would double union membership in four years and simplify the process

by which workers can organize. And importantly, it would prevent employers from their worst

anti-union behavior.

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