State of the Union: Where Labor Goes from Here

Money Talking | Sep 2, 2016

Organized labor seems to be in trouble.

Union membership in the country has been on a slow decline since its peak in the 1950s. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 11.1 percent of the country's workers were unionized in 2015, compared to almost 35 percent in 1954.

For some, this is a good thing. As an example, they point to what they see as over-generous pensions that drain government budgets. But others disagree, claiming a direct link between the decline of the middle class and the disappearing union job.

This week on Money Talking, host Charlie Herman takes at look the future of organized labor, and what that could mean for all workers, with Ruth Milkman, professor at the City University of New York Graduate Center and Lydia DePillis, economics reporter with the Houston Chronicle.

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