Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp
“‘Sixteen million workers were represented by unions in 2024,’ Jim Miller writes in the San Diego Union-Tribune. ‘However, there were millions more who would have joined a union but couldn’t.’ … There’s nothing to stop you from joining a union, whether you’re employed in a unionized workplace or not. There’s no law against it, and although some unions have their own exclusionary rules — the American Federation of Teachers (Miller’s organization) only offers ‘associate’ membership for students, workers whose employers don’t contract with AFT, etc. — if a particular union won’t accept your membership application, chances are good that another (for example, Industrial Workers of the World) will. You’re also never required to join a union. Don’t want to be a union member? Don’t take a job in a union workplace. ‘Problem’ solved.” (06/05/25)