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due to broad economic trends such as globalization, intensified trade, the integration of
China into the global market, and technological change. High-visibility corruption has also
damaged trade unionism's image. But the decrease in union membership in the private
sector can also be attributed to an increasingly hostile political and legal environment,
combined with the American business community's traditional antiunion animus.

A second issue is discrimination. This subject is dealt with at some length in the chapters
on race relations and immigration. This chapter will assess how government policies and
the actions of private institutions have affected the status of women in education and in
the economic arena.

Unions Under Duress

More than in any other developed democracy, the history of organized labor in America
has been marked by violence, unrest, and intense efforts by management to thwart union
objectives. That unions in the United States have encountered such stubborn resistance
may seem odd given that, unlike those in Europe, American unions have historically
accepted capitalism and eschewed the goal of refashioning the economic system along
socialist lines. Samuel Gompers, the first president of the American Federation of Labor,
scorned political radicals and refused to tie labor to a political party. For years, his
successors maintained a tradition of political bipartisanship, although recently labor has
opted for a more organic relationship with the Democratic Party.

Unions' often violent struggles to organize the steel and automobile industries during the
1930s established them as a major force in economic life. After World War II, labor's rolls
rose steadily as the American industrial sector grew, until by the mid-1950s some 35
percent of the labor force was unionized, with labor's strength overwhelmingly centered in
the private sector. Yet even at the pinnacle of its strength, labor confronted opposition
within the business community and among elements of the political leadership that union
movements in Western Europe did not have to face. From the standpoint of labor's future
ability to organize workers on a truly nationwide basis, the most important consequence
was the series of so-called right-to-work laws that were adopted after the 1947 passage
of the Taft-Hartley Act, which was meant to curb what its supporters claimed was excessive
union power. Among other provisions, Taft-Hartley gave states the authority to pass right-
to-work laws. Under these statutes, unions are forbidden to make union membership or
payment of union dues a condition of employment, either before or after a worker is hired.
Right-to-work laws were quickly enacted by nearly all of the Southern states; today, 22
states have some form of right-to-work provision in their labor codes.1

The principal effect of right-to-work laws has been to restrict labor's growth in the South
and the Sun Belt region. During the 1950s and 1960s, unions enjoyed saturation strength
in key industries in the Northeast, Midwest, and some Western states, but they remained
weak in the South. The impact of Taft-Hartley was less significant during the 1950s due to
the South's economic backwardness. However, the law's influence became more
problematic as industries began to migrate to the region, in part due to the South's
antiunion environment and comparatively low labor costs.

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