Contesting the dinosaur image - the U. S. labor movement's search for a future
Abstract
This article traces the declining membership and influence of US trade unions over the last two decades, faced with an onslaught of economic changes and political and employer hostility. Unions became widely perceived as anachronistic dinosaurs. It then considers the various steps taken under two AFL-CIO presidents to deal with the crisis. It argues that the move away from a ‘service model’ to an ‘organizing model', while not a panacea, has been a promising development and looks at the implications for relationships between the AFL-CIO leadership and local unions and for the unions’ strategy in the political sphere.