A union is an organization of workers established to protect members’ rights when dealing with employers. A popular and often true statement about unions is “bad MANAGEMENT creates unions.” Today about 15 percent of the U.S. LABOR FORCE is unionized. Membership in unions varies significantly among regions of the country and industries; it is lowest in the southern and Rocky Mountain areas of the country. Unions in the United States have a long history, and there are many different types. The first U.S. unions were the craft guilds of the 1790s. Printers, shoemakers, and other skilled craftsmen organized to increase wages, reduce working hours, and establish systems where only union labor was used (called a closed shop) by securing control of entry into the crafts. In 1794 printers in New York became the first union to strike, and in the 1820s unions attempted to reduce workdays from 12 to 10 hours. The New York printers strike lasted 10 years but was unsuccessful. During the 19th century, unions were often subjected to prosecution under criminal conspiracy laws. In spite of government prosecution, as industrialization replaced agricultural labor, more unions were formed. Union membership tended to grow during periods of economic expansion and tight LABOR MARKETS and to decline during RECESSIONs. In the late 19th century, mass PRODUCTION and larger factories aided the expansion of unions, some of which sought political power. During that period, Samuel Gompers, considered the “father” of the American labor movement, organized the American Federation of Labor (AFL), an association of craft unions providing services to local unions and lobbying on behalf of all members in national politics. As a child in London, Gompers was apprenticed to a cigar maker. When his family sailed to New York, he joined the Cigar Makers Union, and by age 24 he was president of the local union. In 1886, when the AFL was created, Gompers led union efforts for an 8-hour day and expansion of union efforts to include women. Eugene Debs was also an important leader in the union movement, founding the American Railway Union in 1893 and leading the Pullman strike in 1894. Debs was imprisoned for violating an INJUNCTION against the strike. While in jail, he studied SOCIALISM, and after his release he joined and later led the Socialist Party. Debs ran for president five times, including the 1920 election, when he was imprisoned for speaking against participation in World War I. In the early 1900s there were many violent confrontations between organized labor and management, one of the worst being the 1914 strike by coal miners in Ludlow, Colorado. John D. Rockefeller, America’s first billionaire, owned the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company. During the strike, workers and their families were forced out of company housing. Living in tents near the mine, strikers were harassed by company “deputies” who one night poured oil on the strikers’ tents, setting them on fire. Thirteen women and children died. Union membership declined during the early years of the GREAT DEPRESSION and then grew in the period from the mid-1930s to the mid-1950s, reaching a peak of slightly more than 30 percent of the labor force. A shift of workers from agrarian regions to urban areas during the period and the 1935 passage of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) contributed to union growth. The NLRA, also known as the WAGNER ACT, was a major turning point in government intervention into labor/management relations. The NLRA expanded the process by which unions were recognized as representing groups of workers and also required COLLECTIVE BARGAINING between employers and unions to negotiate wages and benefits. Between 1935 and 1945, union membership grew from 3 million to 14 million. Union membership began to decline in the 1950s as employers moved jobs to employer-friendly areas of the country and as the United States moved from a predominantly manufacturing base to a service-based economy. Service industries have typically been less unionized than manufacturing industries. Part of this is attributable to the history of unions. The largest U.S. unions are industrial unions, which represent many different types of workers and industries. Industrial unions long ago organized many sectors of manufacturing, foremost the mining, construction, and transportation industries. Service industries are newer and also more fragmented, with fewer large employers. The only unions continuing to grow in the United States are public and professional unions. Part of the growth in public unions was due to an executive order signed by President John F. Kennedy in 1962, granting federal Civil Service employees the right to organize. The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) is one of the oldest public/professional unions in the United States. The AFT, along with the National Education Association (NEA), represents many public schoolteachers in the country. Similarly, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) represents college teachers in areas of the country where collective bargaining is allowed. In many states, predominantly in the Southeast and Southwest, state RIGHT-TO-WORK LAWS limit public-sector employees’ ability to unionize. The economic impact of unions varies, depending on who is speaking. Unions have apprentice programs for members, providing skilled workers to employers and thus increasing output and productivity. Unions also attempt to negotiate higher salaries for their members and focus on safe working conditions. Upton Sinclair’s book The Jungle is an early 20th-century tale describing abusive management and horrendous working conditions in the meatpacking industry. While Sinclair’s book is extremely critical of management abuse of labor, unions have also been criticized for excessive demands and unreasonable expectations. The term FEATHERBEDDING refers to union demands to maintain jobs even though changes in technology have made some jobs unnecessary. For example, many trains were required to have a fireman on board as part of a union contract, long after coal-fired engines had been replaced. Union work rules often frustrate business manager’s efforts to “get the job done.” Although union membership in the United States is declining, unions still represent a significant political and economic force.
See also AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR–CONGRESS OF INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS.