case that union workers as a group are always either more or less welcoming to new technology than are

nonunion workers
340 14 • Labor Markets and Income

The Decline in U.S. Union Membership

The proportion of U.S. workers belonging to unions has declined dramatically since the early 1950s.

Economists have offered a number of possible explanations:

• The shift from manufacturing to service industries

• The force of globalization and increased competition from foreign producers

• A reduced desire for unions because of the workplace protection laws now in place

• U.S. legal environment that makes it relatively more difficult for unions to organize workers and expand

their membership

Let’s discuss each of these four explanations in more detail.

A first possible explanation for the decline in the share of U.S. workers belonging to unions involves the

patterns of job growth in the manufacturing and service sectors of the economy as Figure 14.13 shows. The
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