Revisiting Union Decline Summary

The main argument in "Revisiting Union Decline" is the decline of unions from 1970-2008, because of different causes. The main reason for U.S decline is result from institutional that capital benefits from labor. There’s 5 reasons in the reading that explains why capital was an advantaged and why labor was an disadvantaged. One, labor policy. In "Revisiting Union Decline" pg 8-9 governed by the National Labor Relations Acts—Kochan et al. (1986) described that employers ended the accord, no longer finding bargaining under the established system to be in their best interests. In 1980’s the protections of labor policy was very weak. Second, the reconfiguration of productive capital in the 1970s and 1980s, this reconfiguration included “1) a deindustrialization of regions containing unionized workforces and heavy industry, 2) the rapid growth of the services sector, 3) a rise in global competition causing a reduction in investments in domestic goods production, 4) the wide-scale automation of production, and 5) an increased reliance on college-educated workers. Together, these factors may have destabilized the capital-labor accord of the early postwar era.” Pg 13. Third, Political Mobilization and the Business Offensive, in 1970 the anti-union business offensive was gaining momentum. Fourth, union failure, the failure of unions to recruit new members. “Throughout most of the postwar period, unions failed to organize at an adequate level to maintain vitality” pg 24. Last, is financialization. the financialization of the …show more content…
In Revisiting union, they argue that rise of finacilizaton played a pivotal role in weakening the strength of the labor movement. One of the reason for union decline is capital benefiting from labor, even the article sends a clear message that The rise of financialization has led to lower living standards and reduced growth in the