Top 10: Powerful Unions

Top 10: Powerful Unions

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Today's most powerful unions are slick, savvy machines, and they share precious little in common with their ancestors, those fin-de-siècle brotherhoods in blue-collar cities whose strikes sometimes ended in the ultimate sacrifice. The battles fought by those unions were over life-altering changes: fair wages, health care, a safe workplace, and collective bargaining rights. Nowadays, the battles seem less noble and more politically informed, meaning true union power resides in the ability to put the right person in office and throw the wrong one out. Dividing lines are typical: labor unions and middle-class Democrats against big business and deep-pocket Republicans.

Wisconsin's current crisis is similarly political. Republican governor Scott Walker is proposing legislation that cuts into benefits previously negotiated in collective bargaining by public-sector unions for public-sector employees. Democrats claim that the cuts are typical union-busting dressed up as an attempt to address a budget shortfall. 

As the labor union in America faces its toughest battle in decades, we present the top 10 most powerful unions.