How anti-unionism keeps middle class weak in South Carolina and other "red" states

Jack Jones, Vice President and General Manager of Boeing South Carolina, at the dedication of the company's $950 million final assembly plant in North Charleston, S.C. on , June 10, 2011. The plant which received nearly $1 billion in State subsidies has become the poster child for GOP attacks against the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). Photo: AP

New Census Data Shows the Importance of Unions to the Middle Class

By David Madland, Nick Bunker, Center for American Progress  | September 23, 2011

New state income data released yesterday by the U.S. Census Bureau shows the importance of unions to boosting incomes for all middle-class households—union and nonunion alike. The 2010 income data makes it clear that strong unions are a critical factor in creating a middle-class society. Restoring the strength of unions would go a long way toward rebuilding the middle class.

The states with the lowest percentage of workers in unions—North Carolina, Georgia, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Oklahoma, and Texas—all have relatively weak middle classes. In each of these states, the share of income going to the middle class (the middle 60 percent of the population by income) is below the national average, according to Census Bureau figures.

Mapping the Census data that has been released this fall to previous years also shows that over time the strength of the middle class and the strength of the union movement have tracked closely together. In 1968, the share of income going to the nation’s middle class was 53.2 percent, when 28 percent of all workers were members of unions. Since then, union membership steadily declined alongside the share of income going to the middle class. By 2010, the middle class only received 46.5 percent of income as union membership dropped to less than 12 percent of workers.

Minneapolis police battle Teamsters union rank and file in 1934 truckers strike. This strike and similar strikes and organizing drives across the country led to the passage of the National Labor Relations Act. Today Republican politicians like South Carolina's Jim Demint and Nikki Haley are determined to return to the days when labor disputes were decided in the streets.

As unions weaken so does the middle class

As unions weakened, the lion’s share of the economy’s gains have gone to the wealthy. The share of pretax income earned by the richest 1 percent of Americans more than doubled between 1974 and 2007, climbing to 23 percent from 9 percent. And for the richest of the rich—the top 0.1 percent—the gains have been even more astronomical. Their share of income quadrupled over this period, rising to 12.3 percent of all income from 2.7 percent.

Without strong unions, the middle class has lost out to the wealthy.

Read the rest of the story from the Center for American Progress

Learn more about poverty and South Carolina's anti-union policies
Boeing vs. NLRB: follow the money and influence
The NLRB's case against Boeing
South Carolina Govenor Haley pledges to keep wages low and South Carolina union free
South Carolina 12th poorest state in the U.S.A.
Senator Demint on collective bargaining for public employees