The shifting role of unions in America’s workforce
In 1945, more than one-third of America's employed citizens belonged to unions. But membership declined precipitously in the decades that followed.
In 1979, for instance, 24.1 percent of U.S. workers belonged to unions. By 1998 that figure had dropped to 13.9 percent, and to around 12 percent in 2010.
Automation, politics, business management practices and other factors have all contributed to the massive drop in union memberships. Still, labor unions have maintained more clout than would be expected with such declines, in large part because of their increased dues, union support for political campaigns, and influential get-out-the-vote campaigns. Even so, legal rulings that permit workers to withhold a portion of their earnings that unions use to support or oppose political campaigns have contributed to unions' decline.
A history of labor unions in America
Labor unions gained strength in the late 19th century as industrial commerce attracted workers off of farms to work in factories. The work was burdensome for these workers, as they toiled for low wages — sometimes only half of what skilled craftsmen, artisans and mechanics earned at the time. In cities, about 40 percent of workers were low-wage laborers and seamstresses in clothing factories who lived and worked under atrocious circumstances. These workers consisted of poor immigrants, children and women who often ran the machinery in these factories.
Labor unions were able to cause these working conditions to improve. At this time, labor unions grew as a mighty political ally of the Democratic Party. Labor unions showed their clout particularly in the legislation pushed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in his New Deal in the 1930s and continuing into the Kennedy and Johnson administrations of the 1960s.
With the rise in automation, along with court cases that allowed employees to withhold some of the union dues because of union political stances, and other factors, union membership in the private sector began to wane in the 1970s.
Corruption also engulfed some union segments, such as the big Teamsters Union.
The growth of public-sector unions
But union strength is a different story in the public sector. This membership has continued to grow to around 34 percent of government workers in 2010, compared to around 7 percent for private-sector workers. One of the common areas for public union employees is in the area of public administration.
"Debate rages over the reasons for union decline, with many casting at least part of the blame upon the NLRA (National Labor Relations Act) and its interpretation and administration by the board and the courts in directions that are hostile to organized labor's interests," said Marion Crain, a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis.
"But structural factors also play a powerful role, including the shift from an industrial society with its heavily-unionized manufacturing base to a service and information society where union density has historically been low, the advent of new labor-saving technologies that facilitate labor outsourcing, the globalization of work, the hardening of employer resistance to unionization and the growth of the 'union-free' consultant industry."
Other factors that continue to hamper union growth and strength, according to Crain, include:
- Individualism and a shift in cultural norms
- An increase in statutory protections for workers outside the context of labor law
- Increased diversity in the work force
- Union leadership's bureaucracy and complacency
