Letters: As unions go, so does the middle class

Re “Labor law that levels the field,” Opinion, Sept. 3

Although Wilma Liebman’s Labor Day article made some excellent points, it was also fairly depressing.

Not only is union membership low, but organized labor gets little respect from average working people because they believe union wages forced companies to move overseas. In truth, it wasn’t a union wage these companies were avoiding, it was an American wage. No U.S. worker (union or nonunion) can compete with $2-an-hour workers.

Liebman mentions the New Deal as if we’re all on the same page when it comes to 1930s Progressivism. But that isn’t true anymore. Indeed, we are now further away, in years, from the New Deal than the New Deal was from the Civil War.

Labor’s only hope is to drive home the point that the middle class flourished when union membership was high, and it shrank when union membership declined. Period.

David Macaray

Rowland Heights

ALSO:

Letters: Trees or a space shuttle?

Letters: Watching those who watch us

Letters: The end of tax-free Amazon shopping