Not surprisingly, as the NYTimes has reported, corporate profits swell but laborers see no relief (7/14/18, A1). Even though there is a serious shortage of workers, which one would expect to result in higher wages, an increasing share of this country's wealth goes to investors and corporate executives while the pay and benefits of working people shrink.
Although several factors influence this trend, including automation and cheap foreign labor, the overriding reason for Labor's sorry lot is the decline in bargaining power represented by the ever diminishing size and power of labor unions. Unions, at their height, used the power of collective bargaining to end sweatshops and other abuses and gain living wages and benefits for a large swarth of our population. Now, unions are the victims of a "right to work" philosophy stealthily promoted by corporate interests and of the rulings of conservative courts which sanction laws and practices calculated to weaken or destroy unions.
