These dull, dirty, dead-end jobs have something in common. Almost all of them are non-union. And that brings up an issue that should be on the front burner of public policy rather than in the deep freeze. Belonging to a union has major economic advantages. Low-wage workers desperately need the advantages that unions offer.
Polls show that they want unions, and, in fact, are quick to vote in favor when given the chance.
Simply because employers can and do violate the spirit and the letter of the National Labor Relations Act, and they get away with it. When highly skilled, highly paid workers, for whatever reason, want to organize, employers may vigorously resist, but once these workers vote for a union, employers generally tend to settle down and bargain a contract. But not low-wage employers. They routinely resort to lies and intimidation, harass and fire workers to quell organizing campaigns, even pressure local lenders and banks to refuse personal loans to workers or to call in mortgages. And when, despite the odds, low-wage workers manage to organize, employers stall so long on a contract that union membership becomes meaningless.