Surveys have found that the public find business leaders to be more trustworthy than union leaders and many members of non-union families disapprove of unions. Other factors include the increased trend towards smaller sizes of new factories. Moreover, the American workforce has changed significantly in terms of composition, i.e. age, sex, education and race. Some cyclical phenomenon in the political, social and economic environment in the U.S. has also lead to the decline in union membership. These cyclical explanations for the decline include economic factors like the rising unemployment rates in the U.S., the mounting influence of the Republicans since 1952 in national politics, and the drop in class conflicts in the country. The unions also must take a major portion of blame for failure to deploy significant portions of their budgets for organizing new union activities. (Caplow; Bahr; Chadwick; Modell, 1994); (Goldfield, 1989)

As of 2006, only 12.5% of...
[ View Full Essay]