It seems that trade unions are mostly seen in history books. Why and when exactly did they decline?
In: 8
Unions increased the cost of production by proactively shifting profits from share holders to labor. In order to remain attractive to investors and retain profits for for shareholders, businesses simultaneously attempted to break unions while also turning to outsourcing or simply went out of business due to being less cost competitive than their foreign counterparts.
At the same time automation and computerization reduced the need for both skilled and unskilled labor. This decreased the size and power of unions even more, further reducing their power and efficacy.
Finally, the US shifted from a manufacturing economy to a service and information economy. Unions were largely absent in these spaces and held little appeal to for these workers, who were more mobile, educated, and sought after than their unionized counterparts for many years.
Ironically, the resultant shortage of skilled labor has in part reversed this trend. Supply and demand.
* A good economy makes unions (at least temporarily) less necessary, since companies have to work harder to attract and keep workers.
* Anti-union propaganda has a major effect, people get convinced unions are corrupt and evil.
* Anti-union laws and regulations make existing unions weaker and prevent new unions from forming.
* The global economy has allowed companies to outsource jobs to other countries easily for the past few decades. This gives companies a major advantage, they can always shut down a union shop and send the jobs overseas.
Latest Answers