For at least half our waking hours, New Yorkers and the rest of the American people live in a dictatorship. At home or in public places, we enjoy freedoms and liberties envied by most people around the world: freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and freedom of association.

But, the moment we walk through the doors of our workplace, we enter into a world that strips away all our basic rights. Within the walls of the workplace, the whim of the corporation is more powerful than the U.S. Constitution.

Right now, workers cannot say what they believe lest they risk being shown the door. They are fired if they try to exercise their right to freedom of association. They can be secretly monitored via telephone, computer or camera. When we can't band together at work, if that's our choice, we leave our economic future in the hands of companies that break the law every day, with no consequences, because they make money every day they don't have to bargain with a union chosen by workers.

Companies fire workers, threaten to close plants and they hire trained union-busters to strike fear into the hearts of workers. Millions more of our neighbors, friends and relatives would happily join a union if they weren't faced with an antiquated legal system, which long ago ceased to become relevant because it is simply a tool used to brutalize Americans at work.

In states where unions are strong, people earn more money and have better health care, their children go to better schools, and they experience less crime and poverty than states where unions are invisible. Why does Canada have national health insurance? Over 40 percent of its workers have unions.

As Senator, Jonathan would lead the fight for democracy in the workplace, not just make rhetorical statements that talk about the good works unions do. Over the last two decades, he has worked every day to try to empower workers by building new organizations, marching with striking workers and walking picket lines, and chronicling the daily lives of workers and how the economy effects them.

Jonathan is a proud union member. He is a strong supporter of the Employee Free Choice Act, which would give millions of workers a fair chance to form a union.

Jonathan believes unions are a key to building America’s prosperity. Union median wages are 30 percent higher than non-union wages across the economy, not to mention the better pensions and health care union members enjoy. Higher wages means people have money to spend. In the short-term, opposing unions might have left a few more dollars in the bottom line-—partly to finance gargantuan pay, bonuses and pensions for a few executives. But, in the long-term, business shot itself in the foot: highly-paid executives can only buy so many flat screen televisions.