Question

Identify the factors that have contributed to the reduction in union membership. Be sure to include the rationale you use in your speaker notes

Answer 1

The percentage of workers in the private sector who belong to labor unions has shrunk to 6.9 percent which is the lowest rate of union membership recorded in America since 1910. Despite the vast expenditure of money, efforts and government influence by the labor movement, this trend still continues to Fall.There are several contributing to the continued decline in labor union membership, and these trends continue to grow in strength. They are as follows:

1. Unions often seem irrelevant. In good times, workers don’t need unions to secure or increases in wages and benefits because everybody profits from economic prosperity but In the bad times, unions can’t protect their members from wage and benefit reductions and tougher working conditions. In fact, union contracts often seem to make things worse. Hence,the cost of union labor is often cited as a contributing factor to the demise of many companies.
2. Unions have a poor public image as being bloated, inefficient and often corrupt. Stories about mob influence and trials of union officials for embezzlement and bribery are commonly seen.
3. Most Americans now turn to government, not unions, for basic protections. Workers rely on the government for pensions, healthcare, protection against discrimination and a whole variety of other benefits that were formerly provided exclusively by unions.
4. Changes in the American economy and workforce demographics- The rising number of illegal immigrant workers who, fearing deportation, are disinclined to protest substandard employment conditions,so they are much less become involved in a union organizing campaign.
5. Today's workers are less interested in unionisation. The declining numbers of union members over the past 20 years has spawned problem for unions—the current generation of workers comes largely from households where there are no union workers serve as models.Hence, these younger workers have little knowledge of, and do not particularly care about, unions.