Labor 101: Socialism and the Labor Movement

Unions have been essential institutions for worker empowerment for more than a century and a half, and they remain so today.

More than fourteen million workers in the United States belong to unions. Yet in a workforce of roughly 150 million, union density has fallen to just 10 percent, a ninety-five-year low. The result is that many people have never seen a union in action, even as inequality deepens and insecurity spreads. That loss matters. In a society dominated by corporate power, instit...