A 'third bill of rights': let's be inspired by FDR's grand impetus for turning around a troubled economy.

• Author: Hindery, Leo, Jr.
• Position: IT (STILL

In his final State of the Union (SOTU) address, President Franklin D. Roosevelt on Jan. 11, 1944, called on Congress to implement a "Second Bill of Rights"--an "economic bill of rights" that would guarantee:

* A job with a living wage

* Freedom from unfair competition and monopolies

* Homeownership

* Medical care

* Education

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Roosevelt did not argue for any change to the Constitution. Rather, he contended that these rights--to be implemented politically, not by federal judges--were needed because the political rights guaranteed by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights had proved "inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness."

Over the course of the ensuing decades, we made great strides toward achieving these goals. FDR had already introduced the minimum wage in 1938, and after the war wages expanded, homeownership increased, Medicaid and Medicare were created, and college and trade school enrollments soared. All of this coincided with a prolonged balanced expansion of the economy.

Today, though, we've fallen far back from these relative high-water marks. The wages of 90% of workers have stagnated in real terms since 1967. The homeownership percentage has shrunk. Fewer employers offer quality medical insurance and pensions. And more than 28 million workers are now unemployed in real terms, with income inequality at an unprecedented level.

There is very little "equality in the pursuit of happiness."

Thus it is that we need a "Third Bill of Rights" added to FDR's list: the right of workers to freely join a union, and the right of all Americans to fair elections, with limits on large anonymous contributions and free access to voting booths.

Years before FDR's SOTU address in 1944, his National Labor Relations Act recognized the "right to self-organization [and] to form, join, or assist labor organizations." Then, in 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognized that "everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests." And, of course, the First Amendment has always similarly been read to protect freedom of association. But since the 1960s, when 30-35% of private-sector workers were unionized, the American labor movement has declined significantly. Today only about 7% of these workers are unionized.

I've spent a career negotiating deals, and ultimately all negotiations come down to bargaining strength and leverage. When labor was strong, workers...