For decades, Washington’s labor debate has rested on a familiar assumption: Workers are inherently weaker than employers, and unions are necessary to balance the scales. That assumption deserves another look.
At a recent House Education and Workforce subcommittee hearing, Democrats focused on alleged employer abuses and barriers to unionization. Republicans questioned whether union leaders use workers’ money to advance political causes their members may not support. Both arguments are worth having. But both start from the same outdated premise: that the central question is what unions need. The better question is what workers need. And American workers are already telling us something.
Union membership has fallen dramatically from its mid-20th-century peak. Yet Washington often treats that decline as a problem to be reversed rather than asking the more obvious question: Why have so many workers decided they can succeed without a union?
The worker of 2026 is not the worker of 1954. Americans have greater ability to change jobs and careers, relocate, acquire new skills, research what they are worth and seek better opportunities elsewhere. That does not mean every worker has equal leverage or every workplace is fair. Bad employers still exist. Workers can still be exploited. And there are industries where collective bargaining provides real value. But we should not use those realities to pretend workers have no power without organized labor.
For much of the 20th century, collective power was one of the few meaningful forms of leverage available to an individual worker. If the factory in your town was the primary source of good-paying jobs, your options were limited. Walking away could mean putting your family’s livelihood at risk. Today, walking away can itself be a form of worker power. That change matters because too much of our labor policy remains focused on preserving institutions rather than empowering individuals.
Unions are institutions. They should have to prove their value to workers just like any other organization asking for someone’s money, loyalty and trust. If a union negotiates better wages, protects employees from unfair treatment or gives workers leverage they could not achieve individually, workers have every reason to support it. But if workers decide they do not need that representation, government should not view their choice as evidence that something has gone wrong. That is especially important when unions move beyond workplace representation and into politics.
Workers who pay dues deserve to know where their money goes and whether it is supporting political priorities they share. A union created to represent workers should answer to those workers. Membership should not be treated as a blank check for leadership to wield political influence in their names. This is where Washington’s labor debate too often gets backward. The goal of labor policy should not be to make unions powerful. It should be to make workers powerful. Those are not always the same thing.
Worker power means having the freedom to organize when collective bargaining offers an advantage. It also means having the freedom to reject representation that does not. It means being able to demand better pay, pursue another employer, build new skills, change careers or start something of your own. Most importantly, it means trusting adults to determine which path serves them best. The measure of a healthy labor market should not be how many Americans belong to unions. Union membership is not, by itself, proof that workers are thriving any more than declining membership is proof that workers are failing.
The better measure is whether workers have choices and whether they are free to exercise them.
Unions will continue to have a place in American life, particularly in industries where collective representation provides clear value to employees and employers alike. But acknowledging that role is very different from treating union growth as a public policy objective unto itself.
America does not need to recreate the labor economy of the 1950s to protect workers in 2026. Instead of asking how government can restore unions to the influence they enjoyed 70 years ago, Washington should ask why so many workers have chosen a different path. Then it should trust them enough to accept the answer.
Phil Bell is the CEO of Tower K Group, a public affairs and fundraising firm representing clients across industries.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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