An Analysis of Union Membership Trends in the United States

An Analysis of Union Membership Trends in the United States

An Analysis of Union Membership Trends in the United States

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Introduction to Labor Union

Labor unions are made up of working people working together to solve problems , build stronger workplaces and give working families a real voice . Unions give workers a HYPERLINK "http /www .aflcio .org /joinaunion " voice on the job about safety security , pay , benefits - and about the best ways to get the work done Union workers earn 28 percent more each week than

nonunion workers and are much more likely to have health and pension benefits . Unions give working people a voice in government . They represent working families before lawmakers , and make sure politicians never forget that working families voted them into office (http /www .aflcio .org

The American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO ) is the largest union organization in United States , this is considered to be the most influential labor union , and small groups of union are affiliated with them . According to their website ( HYPERLINK "http /www .aflcio .org " www .aflcio .org ) the voluntary federation of America 's unions , representing 10 million working women and men nationwide and another 1 million nonunion workers of Working America The AFL-CIO was formed in 1955 by the merger of the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations

According to Greer (2006 ) year 1995 was supposed to be the beginning of a new era for United States labor unions . That year , an attempt to reform federal labor law broke down in the face of the dramatic 1994 Republican victory in congressional elections . In the first serious contest for AFLCIO leadership ever , several national union presidents blocked the incumbent 's hand-picked successor and elected John Sweeney Sweeney had been president of the SEIU , the fastest growing union in the country , which was organizing workers in janitorial services , healthcare and the public sector (as well as absorbing smaller unions in these areas . Since 1985 , according to AFL-CIO statistics , the SEIU bad expanded from less than 700 ,000 to more than a million members , not only through mergers but also through innovative strategies like the Justice for Janitors campaign , and a highly effective healthcare organizing strategy

American workers are less likely to belong to a union than they were in the past . While the extent of union membership differs significantly across the industrial spectrum , the proportion of all wage and salary workers belonging to unions or employee associations similar to labor unions has declined from nearly a fourth in the late 1970s to only 13 .5 percent in 2001 . The proportional decline is related both to the rapid increase in employment in services-providing industries , where participation in the union movement has traditionally been very low , and to the decline or relative stagnation in employment in those goods-producing industries where union membership has historically been more prevalent . The actual number of workers belonging to unions remained fairly stable , in absolute terms , during the 1990s , after...