In the year 2010, a re-energized labor movement has grown considerably. Successful organizing drives have brought in hundreds of thousands of new members in areas like Silicon Valley companies and low-wage service sector workers. Active member participation in unions is at an all-time high. Rank and file committees run campaigns for contracts and community issues. Local 790, with its 45,000 members, has a hard time finding a facility large enough for annual membership meetings.
Unions successfully pressure employers to raise wages, benefits, and working conditions.
Pro-union elected officials, many of them actual union members, dominate the legislature and Congressional delegation. For a candidate to gain office, labor's endorsement becomes essential. Not since the 1950s or perhaps even the Great Depression have such huge decisions faced the labor movement. The future of American and international work itself is being defined. If we are strong, unions will have a say in that re-definition.