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Labor unions in the United States today are only a shadow of their former selves. While union membership stood at 35% in 1954, today only 10 percent of U.S. workers belong to a union, compared to 65 percent in Sweden, Denmark and Finland, and 92 percent in Iceland.

What has caused this decline in union membership, and what impact has it had on the wages and well-being of working people in this country? Has it been a factor in the widening inequality gap that exists between the one percent at the 99 percent?

Stephanie Luce is Professor of Labor Studies at The CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies and professor of sociology at The CUNY Graduate School. She’s the author of a number of books and articles on the history of labor unions, and we’ll talk with her about the vanishing unions and how this came to be.

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