Do you appreciate your forty-hour, five-day workweek? Appreciate having a safe working environment? Unions made this all possible in one way or another. Unions bring value to all sectors of a society. As the champion of people power versus corporate power, unions help to spread the benefits of production throughout a society. Regardless of the state of the economy, there is the timeless struggle of workers trying to gain or retain their rights. However, a vast amount of Americans (including union members) are unaware of the full history of unions and how they have impacted the American workplace today. UNIONS FOR BEGINNERS provides an introduction to that essential history. Written and illustrated in the user-friendly, accessible style of the For Beginners series, UNIONS FOR BEGINNERS presents the epic story of the labor movement in a simple, memorable way. The role of unions in empowering working people to rise above unfair payment and work conditions to become full-fledged participants in the American dream they helped to build is told in vibrant detail. UNIONS FOR BEGINNERS presents the history of unions and the labor movement, the principles underlying union organizing, the decline of unions in the shadow of the rising corporate state, and the resurgence in the 21st century of union activism