Robert Reich did a GREAT essay on todays "Marketplace" on NPR re; Unions and the EFCA.

[A HERETIC I AM]

"Time to enact the Employee Free Choice Act"

Audio link;

http://marketplace.publicradio.org/www_publicradio/tools/media_player/popup.php?name=marketplace/pm/2009/03/11/marketplace_cast1_20090311_64&starttime=00:08:30.0&endtime=00:11:12.0

Webpage link from the Marketplace website. Text of the piece is under Reich's picture.

http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/03/11/pm_free_choice/

An excerpt:

Go back 50 years, when America's middle class was growing and the economy was soaring. Good pay meant more purchases, and more purchases meant more jobs. At the center of this virtuous circle were unions. In 1955, more than a third of working Americans belonged to one. Unions gave them the bargaining leverage they needed to get the paychecks that kept the economy going.

But now, fewer than 8 percent of private-sector workers are unionized. Middle-class wages slowed so much in the intervening years that most Americans could maintain spending only by working more hours and then, this decade, going deep into debt. But then the bubble burst, and now there's not enough purchasing power to keep the economy going.

Really well said.

[bullwinkle428]

1. Counteracts that commentary from that douchebag from the Cato Institute

this morning on their early version of "Marketplace" - we need more Robert Reich on the airwaves!