In 1935 the United States Congress passed the National Labor Relations Act. This legislation,

just 60 years ago, first secured for most Americans the right to join, form, and assist labor

organizations without restraint, coercion, or reprisal from employers. Working men and women

throughout the country thronged into the ranks of organized labor by the millions. It is no mere

coincidence in our opinion, that the next two decades, through the late 1950's during which

period of time the number of working Americans represented by labor unions reached it's peak,

Americans witnessed the greatest increase in wages and benefits and the farthest reaching

improvements in working conditions of any period during the life of our nation.

The unhappy consequence of the foregoing is, of course, that since the 1950's, after two

decades of burgeoning membership and unprecedented economic benefits, including the

establishment of the greatest middle class any nation has ever known, the ranks of organized

labor have been waning and the American Middle Class have been taking it on the chin.

The statistics are abundant to the effect that while the United States remains the wealthiest nation

on Earth, those of it's citizens who work in offices, it's factories, and on it's construction sites,

those who produce it's goods and services, are no longer on the top of the world's economic

ladder. Wage earners in many countries now do significantly better than their American

counterparts

Labor unions clearly recognize that they must stop the attrition within their ranks, that they must

organize! From an institutional perspective, they must organize in order to survive, From the

membership's perspective they must organize in order to protect the wages, benefits and

conditions which those members currently enjoy.  From a social perspective, unions must

organize in order to stop the trend toward polarization of Americans between a small and

priveleged group of "haves", an ever shrinking "middle class", and an inexorably increasing

contingent of "have nots".

Quoted from: Joseph Moreland Esq. Labor Attorney