When will unions become relevant again?

A lot of people have been talking about this graph lately. Today, Phil shared Can Unions Become Relevant Again?, which wrestles with how to reverse the trend. Middle-class and working-class people have come to believe that unions aren't in their best interests -- for a whole variety of reasons. A large reason, I believe, is due to propaganda from the monied interests, but, for whatever reason, it's simply true. So what's the alternative? I don't think there is one.

Unions are simply workers organizing to negotiate in common regarding their employment. If you don't have a union, you're on your own. I think we're going to see conditions for middle-class and working class people continue to decline until they rediscover the idea that organizing has value. For that reason, I don't think it's a question whether unions will become relevant again. It's rather a question of how long -- and how bad things have to get -- before people realize there's an alternative to being at the mercy of your employer.

I'm grateful to belong to a union. It's been a vehicle for me to learn a lot about my employer, the nature of my employment, and how it compares to other places on campus. Knowing stuff is always better than not.

I'm always frustrated when I hear faculty say, "The union [...] they [...]". No, no, no! It's "The union [...] we!" We are the union. The union does exactly what we do with it. The union is a vehicle for us to make the University work better.