Hello, I'm Bonnie Boswell, continuing our series on life in the workplace.

Now, here's something I found really interesting.

A congressional committee found that unionized employees make 10% more than other workers.

Now, only 10% of American workers belong to unions compared to, say, Iceland, where it's 90%.

Or Italy where it's 34%.

Or according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

But Public support for unions here has grown.

Kent Wong directs the UCLA Labor Center.

There are more workers than in decades who are now organizing union.

We have close to 200 Starbucks stores around the country that have filed for unionization.

We've seen organizing at Amazon warehouses.

Ten years ago, when she started as a grocery store worker, Ashley Manning was not active in the union.

I actually met my union rep. She kind of gave me to the book and she was like, If they do an X, Y and Z, you got to let me know.

Now, Ashley herself is a shop steward at her job in San Pedro.

Every day is something that has to do with laborers not getting first breaks, not getting lunch breaks, not getting breaks at all.

During a pandemic, I was at a rallies at a lot of different stores and people showed up and showed out.

And it was it was just it felt good to see that we all have the same purpose.

It was a lot of people in my store that didn't even believe in unions.

And then, like, I came and I've been here so long.

They all trust me.

And you see that they have somebody on a side that they can trust that can help make stuff better, not just even for us as workers, but even for even for corporate.

Next time, we'll learn more about the history behind America's workforce and why it makes a difference.

For KCET, I'm Bonnie Boswell.