A new report looks at what we stand to gain if we triple current union membership in the U.S. to 30% — restoring it to 1950s levels. “The Case for Tripling Union Membership,” released by the Economic Policy Institute in July, notes that more than 1 in 3 private-sector workers belonged to a union in the 1950s, vs. 1 in 10 today. Strong unions helped reduce income inequality, narrow racial wage gaps, and create a thriving middle class.

Over the last 40 years, big corporations and billionaires who run them have made it increasingly harder for workers to organize and bargain collectively, resulting in the rich seizing more income and wealth, and the destruction of the middle class. Now the wealthiest 0.1% own more than five times the combined wealth of the entire bottom half of the country.

In addition to calculating hard-number benefits and social and civic improvements that tripling union membership would gain for workers, their families and communities (see graphic), the report lays out a roadmap to achieve such union density, including:

• Congress should pass the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act and Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act, bills that would help restore collective bargaining;
• States should repeal anti-union laws and protect collective bargaining;
• Strengthening collective bargaining by guaranteeing newly unionized workers a first contract that includes a raise, and requiring collective bargaining at companies where the CEOs earn 100 times more than workers.

Read the full EPI Union Membership Report.