Decline of Labor Strikes in the United States

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Although I do not know what research and information you have for each point, one approach to help you is to provide additional information from various sources for each point in an outline form, which you can consider for your final copy. I added one extra point e.g. Improved Management-Labor Relations.

RESPONSE:

There has been a continuing decline of labor strikes in the United States. "Employee or labor strikes are called by labor unions usually after a strike-vote by its membership. The strike may be directed at a single organization or may be industry-wide" (http://definitions.uslegal.com/e/employee-strikes/). Some of the possible causes of the decline of labor strikes in the United States include:

MP1: The decline of unions in itself

- By the 1980s and 1990s, unions began to decline in terms of number and power.

- During this period, strikes were infrequent, as employers became more willing to hire strikebreakers when unions walked out and to keep them on the job when the strike was over. This was encouraged in 1981 when President Ronald Reagan fired illegally striking air traffic controllers who were employed by the Federal Aviation Administration.) U.S. Department of State, http://economics.about.com/od/laborinamerica/a/union_decline.htm

- In terms of number of unions declining, labor shrikes declined along with the decline of private sector unions. For example, the decline in the UAW membership represents the manufacturing sector: 1,619,000 members in 1970, 1,446,000 in 1980, 952,000 in 1990, 623,000 in 2004. (http://www.experiencefestival.com/a/labor%20history%20of%20the%20united%20states%20-%20labor%20history%201955-2005/id/1561821).

- There was also a decrease in union membership and power, to a lesser extent, in the 1980s and 1990s due to changing conditions, including union dues increasing, continuing union contributions to political campaigns, and union members' diligent voter-turnout efforts, which kept unions' political power from receding as much as their membership. But court decisions and National Labor Relations Board rulings allowing workers to withhold the portion of their union dues used to back, or oppose, political candidates, undercut unions' influence (U.S. Department of State, http://economics.about.com/od/laborinamerica/a/union_decline.htm).

- These changing conditions of the 1980s and 1990s, for example, undermined the position of organized labor, which now represented a shrinking share of the work force. While more than one-third of employed people belonged to unions in 1945, union membership fell to 24.1 percent of the U.S. work force in 1979 and to 13.9 percent in 1998 (U.S. Department of State, http://economics.about.com/od/laborinamerica/a/union_decline.htm).

- Another important factor in the declining number of labor strikes and declining union is automation-a continuing challenge for union members. For example, many ...