 Come with me and Imagine a world where workers have real power in this world Workers are paid a living wage are protected by a strong union and they wield enough political clout to ensure Congress passes pro-worker laws Corporations can't treat them like robots and abandoned communities to find cheaper labor elsewhere It's a world of low Inequality where workers have a bigger share of the fruits of their labor. This world is America in the 1950s Now this world was far from perfect. That's why it's not enough just to go back in time We have to build upon it and expand it for the past 40 years This world has been Dismantled the voice of workers has been steadily drowned out in both the workplace and on the national political stage By the voice of big corporations this massive power shift wasn't the result of free market forces But a political choices now it's time to make the political choice to strengthen the voice of all workers Start with one of the biggest sources of worker power Unions every worker in America has a legal right to join a union free from interference from their employer a Hard-fought victory that workers shed blood to secure But corporate America has been busting unions to prevent workers from organizing in Bessemer, Alabama For instance Amazon used every trick in the anti-union playbook to prevent its predominantly black workforce from forming the first Amazon Union Most union busting tactics are illegal But the punishment is so laughably small that it's simply the cost of doing business for a multi-billion dollar company like Amazon In addition 28 states now have so-called Right-to-work laws on the books thanks to decades of big business lobbying these laws ban unions from requiring dues from non-union workers Although non-union workers still benefit from these union contracts This obviously makes it much harder for workers to unionize corporations are also pacifying employees as Independent contractors and part-time workers so workers don't qualify for unemployment insurance workers compensation or the minimum wage and they don't have the right to form a union and Corporations are waging political fights to keep employees off the books Uber Lyft and other gig companies shelled out 200 million dollars to get proposition 22 past in California Exempting them from a state labor law cracking down on misclassification. You see it's a vicious cycle Corporations crush their workers to protect corporate bottom lines Then use their enlarged profits to lobby for policies that allow them to keep crushing their workers preventing workers from having a voice in the workplace and in our democracy this vicious cycle began in the 1980s when corporate raiders ushered in the era of shareholder capitalism that prioritized Shareholders above the interests of other stakeholders. They bought up enough shares of stock to gain control of the corporation and then cut costs by slashing payrolls busting unions and Abandoning their home communities for cheaper locales all to maximize share Values the CEO of General Electric Jack Welch helped pioneer these moves in just his first four years as CEO of Full quarter of GE's workforce was fired The best thing you can do to employee is early on as early as you know, they're the bottom 10 Let them know so they can go on and adjust their life The Reagan administration helped block any legislation to rein in these hostile takeovers and Refused to lift a finger to enforce anti-trust laws that could have prevented some of them the result of these political choices Corporate profits have soared and wages have stagnated But it doesn't have to be this way we can turn the tide by making new political choices that restore the voice and Centrality of American workers. The most important is now in front of us. It's called the protecting the right to organize act passed in the house in March with bipartisan support the pro-act is the toughest labor law reform in a generation it prevents misclassification of full-time workers Bands corporations for harassing or intimidating workers who want to form a union prohibits employers from replacing Striking workers with non-union workers and beefs up penalties for breaking existing labor laws among other provisions Empowering workers now beyond the pro-act American businesses need to be restructured So workers have a say at every level at the top that means a voice on corporate boards in many European countries Worker representation has been shown to boost wages skills and corporate investment in communities at the local level We should make it easier to establish worker owned Cooperatives which have been shown to increase profits wages and worker satisfaction And our trade and foreign policy can center on American workers without falling into the kind of xenophobia and nativism Donald Trump promoted Reversing 40 years of shareholder capitalism won't be easy But remember this you the working people of America Outnumber the corporate executives and big investors by a wide margin Together you can change the rules and build a world where workers have real power