ECONOMIC MOTIVATIONS FOR JOINING LABOR UNIONS
This research considers the economic motivations for labor union membership. In the context of the research objective, economic motivations are more inclusive than wages. Economic motivations also include working conditions, control, and the right to bargain collectively.
While labor organization has been present in American society from almost the beginning of nationhood, unions were repressed legislatively, judicially, and socially until the early 1930s (McConnell, 1989). At that point, under the "New Deal" programs of the Franklin Roosevelt Administration, progressive labor legislation began to be introduced. From that time through the mid 1940s, organized labor grew, became a socially acceptable institution, and suffered far less from judicial repression. During the 1930s, however, bloody labor wars which occurred, as industrial managements attempted to thwart the development of the labor movement. Most of these labor wars involved member unions of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), as opposed to those of the American Federation of Labor (AFL), which was composed primarily of craft unions.
The 1947 Congress marked the first time since the initial election of Franklin Roosevelt as President that the Republicans held a majority in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. About the only notable legislation they passed in their short lived (two year) majority was the Taft Hartley Act, which imposed new restrictions on organized labor in the areas of (1) practices, (2) internal administration, (3) collective bargaining procedures, and (4) strike actions deemed harmful to the health and safety of the nation (McConnell, 1989).
In 1955, the AFL and the CIO joined into a single organization. Membership (in terms of the number of members) was near its all time high at that time about 22 million members, or 21 percent of the American workforce (McCo...