Unions In The 19th Century: A Case Study

Unions have been declining for decades. Throughout the history of America, few issues have caused the labor movement to fall. According to the author, the labor movement has been declining because the industries in which they could be strong could no longer afford them; once globalization opened the markets to foreigners, it became a significant competition. Because of this, there is a major competition and pay levels against the workers in Mexico and China who could turn out comparable products at a fraction of the American wage. (Meyerson, 2012)

For the past decade, the growth of global markets has caused the bond of the economy and America 's largest corporations to decline/fallen short. According to Harold, in 2001 thirty-two percent of the revenues of the S&P 500 came from abroad. And, by 08, the figure had increased by 48 percent, as the growing middle classes of nations such as China, Mexico, and Brazil began purchasing more. According to the article, with the growth of markets abroad, the companies can afford to be less concerned with maintaining the purchasing power of consumers. (Meyerson, 2012)

According to Heidecker, workers in the private sector labor unions has dropped to 6.9 percent. Labor historians report that this is the lowest rate of union membership in America since the 18th century. Researchers found that workers now see Unions as part of the problem and not the solution. There are numbers of reasons as to why employees think this way. Firstly, employees believe that unions are often irrelevant. They (employees) don’t need unions to secure increases in wages and benefits because everyone profits from economic prosperity. Another reason for the decline is that workers believe that unions can 't protect their members from layoffs, salary and interest and tougher working conditions. In fact, they believe that union contracts often seem to make things worse. (Heidecker,