A new report from the Center for American Progress Action Fund shows all the ways that unions are good for the economy:
One of the primarily reasons why our current recession endures is that workers do not have the purchasing power they need to drive our economy. Even when times were relatively good, workers were getting squeezed. Income for the median working age household fell by about $2,000 between 2000 and 2007, and it could fall even further as the economy continues to decline. Consumer activity accounts for roughly 70 percent of our nation’s economy, and for a while workers were able to use debt to sustain their consumption. Yet debt-driven consumption is not sustainable, as we are plainly seeing.
What is sustainable is an economy where workers are adequately rewarded and have the income they need to purchase goods. This is where unions come in.
They’ve even got a nifty interactive map where you can see the difference having more union workers would make in the economy of each state. Pretty cool!