Elite Conservatives have been attacking unions for years. This has been destroying America in multiple ways, mainly, these attacks have reduced union membership which has been reducing middle-class wages. It also has been the most effective assault on Progressivism. Reducing the number of people in unions has reduced the money unions can invest in Democrats and Progressive policy. It also strengthens the Conservative base made up of white men. White men who were not in a union voted for G.W. Bush 69% of the time in 2000 while white men who were in a union voted for Al Gore 59% of the time. That is a 28% swing, an absolutely incredible number when you look at how difficult it is to change people's minds and attitudes about politics.
If unions disappeared I do not see how Democrats could win the Presidency or a majority in either the House or Senate. New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada Colorado and New Mexico would all be gone.
But now let's take a look at this from the opposite angle. North Carolina has the lowest percent of union members in the nation at only 3% yet North Carolina is also a swing state. Romney won NC by only 97,645 votes (out of 4,451,241 votes). A 1.1% swing would have won NC for Obama. With 3,284,592 non-farm employees if we brought NC up to the national average at 11.3% (a huge undertaking) there would be 272,521 union members. Even if we doubled it to 6% (TN is at 6.4%) Progressives would be much stronger in the state.
So where would we even begin?
Assuming most people who aren't in a union have the same image of unions as I do (a place I don't belong, foreign to what I know, etc) then we need to find a catalyst to bring together union familiarity with non-union workers.
MoveOn has over 8 million members and many other Progressive (non-labor) groups have additional members. MoveOn is incredible at communicating and I feel if they ran a campaign to get their members involved with labor unions we'd be a solid step closer. The second part is for labor unions to hold highly publicized events in their labor halls. From movie screenings (Cesar Chavez would be a good start) to bingo nights. The whole idea would be to help non-union workers feel comfortable with unions. This may already be happening but if MoveOn and other Progressive groups invited their members to union halls it would make them even more successful. I know MoveOn hosts movie nights and other events but a specific campaign coupled with unions.
So now that we're past half of the main reason why people don't join unions let's take a look at part two.
Fear of losing their job. Yes corporations will run campaigns about how bad unions are and how they're only trying to steal your money and many other negative (and grossly inappropriate) stories to try and discredit unions. But the main reason I'd suspect people vote no on joining a union or even trying to organize a union is fear of losing their job. Many companies will relocate employees or close their facilities all together.
But if we brought together Progressive business owners who committed to hiring people if they get fired or retaliated against until they found a new job then we could eliminate much of the fear corporations cook up during a unionizing effort.
Swing States & Union Members:
NC - 3%
FL - 5.4%
OH - 12.6%
VA - 5%
NV - 14.6%
AZ - 5%
NM - 6.2%
IN - 9.3%