Unions have faced a great deal of issues over the last century and a half. Some of these have been positive, and some negative. This paper will evaluate some of the negative issues that unions have had to face over the decades, with focus on mainly the past few. First, a brief background of the history of unions in general will be discussed, followed by the issue at hand of the initial rise to the decline in the last fifty years. Next, the issue of tackling the causes of the decline will be discussed in detail. Following this will be the discussion of some current issues that continue to trample the success of unions. Finally, activities that could cease the long decline in union activity will be touched upon. This study will attempt to touch upon this subject matter in an objective sense while conveying current issues that unions deal with today.
During World War I, union membership increased, up until the 1920's. The future of unions, from this point, began to become uncertain. The decline in activity lasted until the Great Depression. In these years, the Norris-LaGuardia Anti-Injunction Act and the Wagner Act were passed, which gave them protection. The intent of these laws was to help unions to organize, and this in itself was successful. There was one problem that unions faced in the 1930's, however. The CIO, (Committee for Industrial Organization) broke ties from its parent, the AFL (American Federation of Labor). These now two different organizations organized their respective unions into two different categories. The AFL imposed craft unionism, which organized members according to their trade. The CIO imposed industrial unionism, which organized members according to the industry that they belonged to, regardless of their skill. This slowed membership somewhat until 1955, when they merged again (Denholm, 1999).
It is agreed by most scholars that unionism peaked at the end of the Korean War.