The Enemy Within Book Report

Over the years we have seen the number of union memberships decrease and we have also seen the wages of employees decrease too. In the 1950’s when the Teamsters were at their full strength, the wages and union membership numbers were at their highest point in American history. After Kennedy and others exposed the corruptions inside of unions, membership numbers have declined every year. Most people believe that the blue-collar industry decline is the main reason for that, but corruption by union leaders could also be a reason people don’t want to join a union. In this paper I will summarize the Enemy Within book, talk about some of the facts that I found interesting, and then I will talk about the effects this investigation had on labor unions throughout history. …show more content…
This book has details on the corruption that took place inside unions in the 1950’s. Unions were easy targets for organized crime because of the lack of supervision and the trust of the American people. Union officials used that trust and freedom to commit crimes and fraud for their own personal gain; and this may have had an effect on the decline of unionization. After this investigation in the early 1960’s we seen the number of union membership decline and this also may have had an effect on the average salary of employees in America. With less union representation employers have more control of salary, benefits, and working conditions; and that is not a good thing for the working American. The behavior of Hoffa and other union officials has had an overall negative effect on the working American. They have contributed to the power shifting back to the employer and have help make unions almost none existent in 2016. Some may say that the lack of blue collar jobs is the biggest reason for union decline but I think the lack of trust has led to Americans viewing union membership as