This week in the war on workers: Union membership falls. The middle class falls. Not a coincidence.

Rss@dailykos.com (laura Clawson) · Saturday, April 18, 2015, 7:11 pm
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Chart showing declining union membership against the share of income going to the middle 60% of families.
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[To view the chart, click on the Source link below...]
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Oh, look. Another chart showing how declining union membership goes hand in hand with the declining strength of the middle class. Shall we look at some more specifics?
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Collective bargaining raises the wages and benefits more for low-wage workers than for middle-wage workers and least for white-collar workers, thereby lessening wage inequality.
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Collective bargaining also raises wages and benefits more for black, Asian, Hispanic, and immigrant workers, thereby lessening race/ethnic wage gaps.
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The decline of unions has affected middle-wage men more than any other group and explains about three-fourths of the expanded wage gap between white- and blue-collar men and over a fifth of the expanded wage gap between high school- and college-edu­cated men from 1978 to 2011.
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The states where collective bargaining eroded the most since 1979 had the lowest growth in middle-class wages and the largest gap between rising productivity growth and middle-class wage growth.
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Source