A look at productivity, income, wealth, and spending from 1947-1980 from the New York Times.
See the Full Chart
The great American middle class wasn’t something that just happened – it was built brick by brick. It was built by soldiers returning from war and a government that repaid them by giving them a shot at college.
The Fair Treatment for Farm Workers Act extends collective bargaining rights for California’s farm workers that are currently afforded to the state public employees responsible for overseeing California's agricultural industry who work in the Department of Food and Agriculture, the Department of Pesticide Regulation, the Department of Water Resources, the State Water Resources Control Board, the California Exposition and State Fair, and the Agricultural Labor Relations Board.
At the UFCW, we know what makes our union strong: members standing together for respect and dignity in the workplace. In the grocery industry, union contracts guarantee protections and a voice on the job. But at the company with the most grocery sales in America, Walmart, our fellow workers are not receiving the respect they deserve
Without harbor truck drivers moving freight containers into and out of our ports, the U.S. economy would virtually come to a halt. But instead of being treated with dignity and respect, they are treated like sharecroppers on wheels.
The warehouse workers of the Inland Empire work back breaking jobs for low pay and no benefits. Their hard work makes it possible for big corporations like Walmart to continue to profit during the economic crisis and for America’s retail shelves to be stocked with consumer goods.
USING STRENGTH IN NUMBERS TO RECLAIM THE AMERICAN DREAM
What the wealthy and well-connected figured out is that they have strength in numbers: the numbers of dollars they contribute to politicians. It’s time working and middle class Americans use our strength in numbers to reclaim the American Dream. We need a counterweight to the power of big money – and that’s the power of big numbers, the power of ordinary people who work for a living demanding to have our voices heard – from the workplace to Washington.
