This is my synopsis of an article in the Politico written by David Madland.  A well written article with a lot of information to process.

Half of all workers in the United States now say they would vote to join a union if they could, yet union membership continues to decline — down to just 8 percent today from one-third of private sectors workers in the decades after World War II. The reason: Existing laws make joining a union a Herculean task that few are able to undertake.

Workers considering forming a union face an undemocratic system that permits intimidation. Employers legally can force workers to attend anti-union meetings, including “one-on-one conversations” with supervisors, which happens in over 90 percent of organizing campaigns, according to a Cornell University study. And according to research by University of Oregon professor Gordon Lafer, workers often are pressured by employers to reveal their private preferences for the union. This takes the “secret” out of the “secret ballot” — the most common conservative mischaracterization of current union organizing rules.
Without strong unions, our economy pays a heavy price: wages lag; insecurity, poverty, and inequality increase; and too few workers have the purchasing power needed to boost our nation’s gross national product. Workers are ever more productive, but they haven’t benefited from this increased productivity as much as they should. Wages have been stagnant for years, and in 2007 actually fell by nearly 1 percent, after adjusting for inflation.
When workers join together in a union, they can negotiate for higher wages and better benefits. Department of Labor figures show that union members receive wages that are about 30 percent higher than workers not in a union, and they are much more likely to receive heath and retirement benefits. And when unions are strong and able to represent the people who want to join them, these gains spread throughout the economy.

With unions leading the way, nonunion companies increase their wages, and all workers have more purchasing power, producing a “virtuous circle of prosperity and jobs,” according to University of California-Berkeley professor Harley Shaiken. A Center for American Progress report found that strengthening unions is critical to reducing poverty in the United States.