Earlier this year, Bernie Sanders released the most sweeping pro-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 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 games 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 is a protected

class.

Bernie's worker rights plan would double union membership in four years

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