Labor Relations: Are Unions Still Relevant?

It would be fair to say that it was the Industrial Revolution which energized workers to form labor unions to create not only some standards for work environment, including safety, hours worked and, eventually, a fair wage. The Oxford Dictionary of English usage defines a labor union as "an organized association of workers, often in a trade or profession, formed to protect and further their rights and interests`" (Oxford 2006 1). At the end of the 19^th and beginning of the Twentieth centuries, the struggle for labor unions to have the rights for workers recognized by large corporations often resulted not only in strikes and lockouts, but serious bloodshed. The Pullman strike, and the Homestead disaster (with U.S. Steel) still remain black marks on American business. The idea of "organized labor" created Samuel Gompers' A F of L, and, later, Philip Murray's CIO. But, the government kept hand s off labor relations, allowing unions and management to fight it out for employee benefits and better working conditions, until the new Deal, in 1933 created the National Labor Relations Board. Now, government had a hand in labor relations that would be equitable to both parties.

"The greatest achievement of trade unions in the economy as a whole has been that they have made possible the government of industry by constitutional means" (Lerner 1956 322). It was the pro-labor New Deal which created Social Security and collective bargaining, which provided a fair means of creating decent working conditions and salaries to which both labor and management could come to an agreement. This was the time of greatest union membership, and the post-World War II era found unions gaining strength in coal mining, auto industry, steel, railroads and, eventually, farm workers.