1. Stronger trade unions. Unionized workers get better pay and working conditions, but also get better opportunities for their children. For kids whose parents are in the same occupations, the union workers' kids fare better in school, getting better grades and being less likely to drop out... and to go further with their formal schooling.
2. More subsidies for formal education. If education is about as expensive as a hobby (which is about what it was in the 1970's at land-grant universities), then people are less likely to quit for reasons of cost... or compromising their education to work in menial jobs. It's hard to see what college students learn from working in fast-food places, dollar stores or convenience stores... the people who need such work most as a long-term career are typically poor people with little education and few skills.
3. Drug rehab. That should be obvious.
4. Promote the establishment of high-tech industry in what are now cities in economic decline. Just think of Detroit, which when the automobile industry was so important attracted talented and hard-working people much as Silicon Valley does today. The auto industry isn't as big a share of the economy anymore, and it has dispersed heavily from southeastern Michigan. I could give plenty of other examples.
It is a terrible idea to have economic activity concentrated in a few high-cost areas. Need I tell you about Ohio?
In addition, stronger unions even help laborers in non-union businesses. Labor strength offers an incentive for non-union employers to pre-emptively offer benefits+a fair wage to placate workers from organizing themselves.
One pro-union publication also mentioned that unionized workers are less likely to get killed or disabled in industrial accidents. To be sure, some companies are able to defeat unions before they form by having excellent systems of compensation or of being entrepreneurial start-ups. One gets low pay and primitive conditions in such places but knows that the company is on a track for greatness. On the other side are sweatshops that traditionally overwork and underpay their workers and treat their workers accordingly. Those companies tend to be reckless on safety. They keep overworking people (thus they are more likely to work while tired and vulnerable to lapses in safety) and underpaid until market conditions drive them into bankruptcy.
Deaths and crippling injuries from workplace accidents themselves create poverty.
