Landscape of Unions

Landscape of Unions

Unions Membership over the Century

A profound change in the American labor force has been observed recently. The recent shift in the American labor force has occurred during the radical developmental shift in the Nation's evolution from the agrarian society into a modern industrial society. Until the 19th century major portion of the Nation was agrarian. The condition of the unskilled workers was miserable; the wages of the unskilled workers was as little as half the pay of the skilled workers, artisans and craftsmen (Butcher, 2009).

The recent radical change in the society has brought radical shift in the joining of the people in the unions. A record number of technical worker and professional staff joined the unions in the past few years. The radical shift is shattering the myth and the common misperception of the people joining the unions. In the past, blue collar workers were the primary members of the unions, often interested in the collective bargaining and compensation conflicts. The new shift is owed to the process of globalization and the excessive use of digitalized information (Butcher, 2009). Globalization and extensive use of digital information has offshore the blue collar and white collar jobs.

In addition to globalization and extensive use of the digital information, the evolution in the union membership has been affect by the recent shifts in the number of demographics that has occurred in the past decade. The workforce at present is much diverse than 25years ago. Along with the demographic changes, a shift in the manufacturing unionization has incline toward service unionization, especially within the public sector. People are joining the service institutes and respectively their unionizations. The most common public sector occupations with heavily unionized members are firefighters, teacher and police officers. These protective occupations are providing the members with all ...