With chants of 'Our House, Our House' resonating across the country, Wisconsinites awaken a nation.

The history of unions in America began in the 1800's with the AFL (now AFL-CIO) and the railroad brotherhoods. If you are going to understand unions in America and their relevance to federal workplace regulations, you have to look back at history and indentify why unions were started  in the first place.

Who can forget the Haymarket riot in the late 1880's in Chicago and coal strikes, auto workers, steel workers' strikes in the 1900's.

Unions were a by-product of the Industrial Revolution--progress- automobiles, manufacturing industry, textile industry, the list reveals our national dominance- before free trade.

In 1936 John L. Lewis  the CIO of the United Mine Workers of America told workers  that "The President wants you to join the Union."  The UMW was one of FDR's main financial supporters in 1936, contributing over $500,000.

Then World War 11 came.

In November 1943 a Fortune poll asked, "Are there any prominent individuals in this country who you feel might be harmful to the future of the country unless they are curbed?" 36% named Lewis. 3%  named Roosevelt.  As a result the Conservative Coalition in Congress was able to pass anti-union legislation, the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947. This was a response to both labor and management to prohibit actions by either including infringement on workers' rights or their impact on the economy if they initated strikes.

Walter Reuther  took control of the UAW, The United Auto Workers Union which led to major strikes in 1946. The UAW eventually merged with the AFL-CIO. Reuther achieved high pay and benefits for his members, and high profits for the Big Three automakers. Once the Germans and Japanese started exporting cars in the 1970s, the result is well known to all of us it was the beginning of a series of crises and shrinkage of unions and the US automobile industry.

This event was further exacerbated by Free Trade which eventually gave rise to job losses and manufacturing that went overseas.

It is interesting to note that the AFL-CIO, the biggest federation of U.S. unions, in August 2007 freed its 55 member unions to make their own recommendations in the presidential race.

The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, with about 720,000 active and retired members, made its first-ever dual endorsement when it backed Democrat Hillary Clinton Republican Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor in 2008.

Being a union member does not require you to be politically affiliated with a particular party. Though today most union members are Democrats, African Americans or Hispanics.

Who makes more, private or public sectors?

MediaMatters debunks the claim that public workers make more than private workers in  a YouTube video- In fact Wisconsin public workers make 4.8% LESS than their private counterparts.

According to "George's Bottom Line" workers in education, training, and library occupations had the highest unionization rate at 37.1 percent. http://blogs.abcnews.com/george/2011/02/working-in-america-public-vs-private-sector.html

It's clear that public workers stay longer at the job, have pensions and health benefits that accrue in a lifetime of work. This is usually no longer the case in the private sector because job longevity is shrinking, as are benefits. Private empolyers are making employees kick into to their health care plans and other benefits in order to increase their own ROI. So, it's easy to see how this could create class-warfare.

This video was used on a local blog to inaccurately identify the actual compensation comparisons between private and publlic workers. (NOTE: Comment below is factually incorrect. Government workers do not make 25% more, they make 4.8% less.)

"Wisconsin government workers receive over 25% higher wages than private sector workers doing comparable work. Plus the government workers receive extremely generous benefits paid for by the private sector in the form of taxes which puts an even greater burden on the private sector employment. The bottom line is that government work, unless it is absolutely necessary, is a drag on the economy. And then to put on top of that normal drag, salaries and benefits that are above industry standards, that is a recipe for disaster. Wisconsin being one of the first states to implement collective (nice socialist ring to it) bargaining for their public employees may now be the first state to get rid of it. Let us hope for the sake of Wisconsin that they do." by jbranstetter04

Source: BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages