The Future of Private Sector Unionism in the United States

A study of the long-term decline of the labour movement in America, exploring the outlook for labour and unions in the 21st century. There are insights from contributors from a range of backgrounds - academic and non-academic, domestic and foreign, pro- and anti-union.

James T. Bennett, Bruce E. Kaufman

1: Introduction; 2: The Future of Private Sector Unions in the U.S.; 3: Accounting for the Decline of Unions in the Private Sector, 1973-1998; 4: Twilight for Organized Labor; 5: Information Technology, Unions, and the New Organization: Challenges and Opportunities for Union Survival; 6: Private Sector Union Density and the Wage Premium: Past, Present, and Future; 7: Unions as Value-Adding Networks: Possibilities for the Future of U.S. Unionism; 8: The Fall and Future of Unionism in Construction; 9: Learning from Each Other: A European Perspective on American Labor; 10: Labor's Love Lost? Changes in the U.S. Environment and Declining Private Sector Unionism; 11: Human Resource Management Practices and Worker Desires for Union Representation; 12: New Strategies for Union Survival and Revival; 13: Labor Unions: Victims of Their Own Political Success?; 14: Mandatory Agency Shop Laws as an Explanation of Canada-U.S. Union Density Divergence; 15: Intensity of Management Resistance: Understanding the Decline of Unionization in the Private Sector; 16: Strategy for Labor; 17: The Future of U.S. Private Sector Unionism: Did George Barnett Get it Right After All?; 18: Conclusion: The Future of Private Sector Unionism in the U.S.-Assessment and Forecast