January 2015
Beginner
480 pages
32h 52m
English
Explain why union membership dropped and what the prospects are for the union movement.
For years, construction trade unions in New York placed a huge inflatable rat balloon in front of construction sites that they were targeting, but they rarely do that anymore. As the business manager for one local plumbers union put it, “Our philosophy for the past 15 years hasn’t created any more market share for us. We have been viewed as troublemakers . . . . Now we are going to use [public relations] to dispel those perceptions.” 96
Union membership has gradually declined in America, from about 20% of the workforce in 1983 (when 17.8 million workers belonged to unions) to about 11.1 ...