Why this fascination with attempting to pair middle class and unions as proxies for each other it's complete nonsense?Quote from Ricter:
I won't argue your explanations for the decline of unionism now, though I do think they're wrong, but will say, so what? They've declined and the middle class is still worse off in spite of huge growth in productivity. Something else is up, and it aint unionism.

There's a reason union membership is so low, and it's because they have lost the trust and faith of many of their members. People don't like it when they see some dope that should be fired still have a job. Makes it tough on everyone. People don't like hearing about taking care of your union brother, and then getting laid off while your "brothers" work 60 hours a week in your absence.