Why have labor unions failed to organize non union labor?

There are many reasons for labor unions' failure to organize non-union workers and for their steep decline in membership as a percentage of the private sector workforce to its current level of 7.6 percent.

1. Perhaps the most important reason is structural changes in the U.S. economy--a decline in traditionally unionized steel and manufacturing industries and a rise in sectors such as information technology which are less susceptible to unionization. An important cause of this trend has been trade policy which has allowed the U.S. market to be flooded by manufactured goods produced by poorly paid workers who work in unsafe polluting plants in China and other developing countries.

2. Other reasons include fierce resistance to unionization by U.S. employers, ineffectual legal remedies for violations of the National Labor Relations Act and agonizingly slow NLRB procedures (JFK once referred to the NLRB as "Bleak House," a reference to Dickens' novel about a lawsuit in the British Chancery Court over an estate that went on through several generations to the benefit of the barristers while nothing was left for the beneficiaries.) Employers violate the NLRA with impunity, firing union supporters, employing delaying tactics, refusing to bargain once a union is certified by the NLRB.

3. Laws passed by Congress with union support offer many protections formerly provided only by unions--e.g., OSHA, Family Leave Act, anti-discrimination laws and procedures, wage and hour laws, etc.

4. Union inattention to representing effectively the needs of their members has also contributed to declines in union membership. Some unions appear to be more interested in collecting dues than representing their members. Sweetheart relationships with employers are all too common.

I am a ten year survivor of brain cancer with a work related spine injury. I was fired from my employer Verizon, The union did nothing to help preserve my job. Nor did they help with changing my position to accomodate my disability. People hear of these cases and see no point in joining a Union if they can not protect the employee. There are to many like me. They will protect troubled employees though that have no business still being employed. The companies and Unions are in each others pockets in todays hard business world. It is that simple. Peace.