Everyone benefits from unions

May 1 is the “Labor Day” of many other countries around the world. For historic reasons, the U.S. celebrates separately, on Sept. 2 this year.

International Workers’ Day reminds us that there is one best solution toward correcting the global problem of unequal distribution of income and wealth. The answer is unionization.

When a greater share of the American workforce was unionized, a greater share of our population was “middle class.” We have to return to that way of life.

Having advocates who bargain on behalf of workers for better wages and benefits will improve their pay rates, protect their wellness and provide for their retirement.

It’s a well-tested idea that when somebody fights on your behalf for your pay and benefits package, you have a better chance of getting it.

Proof of that concept is alive in every corporation headquarters where some merely average chief executive is enjoying extraordinary compensation. In cases like that, instead of union bargaining agents, a corporate “compensation committee” made it happen.

Anyone who argues that the fragmented nature of today’s work and business environment stands in the way of unionization is missing the point. We need more unionization. Of course, we must go about achieving it differently than we have in the past.

Meanwhile, it’s time to quit cursing the super-rich. Forget about redistributing wealth. Over-taxation won’t work either. Besides, we have to remember that some of the greatest achievements of civilization have come about because there was an elite class desiring them. Without pharaohs, there would never have been the Great Pyramids.

While every working person may not end up as a union member, everyone will at least benefit secondhand. People who unthinkingly oppose unions overlook the ways in which their work and their lives are better because some percentage of the workforce has been unionized, improving everyone’s standard of living.

Along the way there have been stupid union leaders. Predictably, they have been far outnumbered by stupid businessmen. Dwelling on unfortunate stories of the past places unfair emphasis on a minority of cases.

Among all available options, greater unionization comes closest to being the perfect solution to rebuilding the middle class in the U.S. and the entire world. FREDERIC B. SARGENT

Squirrel Hill