ABSTRACT
TheAmericanlabormovementhassufferedacalamitousdeclineinrecentyears. Thedepthofitscrisisisbestcapturedinthenumbers.In1975,membership stoodatanall-timehighof22million.Thattranslatedintoauniondensityinthe nonagriculturalsectorof28.9percent,downonlyby3.4pointsfromthepeakof 32.3percentin1953.Today,uniondensitystandsatroughly16percent,a drop-offbynearlyhalfinfifteenyears.Inabsoluteterms,membershipisdown by4millionfromthe1975highmark.Butforthesurgeinpublic-employee unionismsincethe1960s,thelabormovementwouldfinditselfinanevenmore parlousstate.Intheprivatesector,laborunionsrepresentabout12percentofthe nonagriculturalworkforce,perilouslyclosetopre-NewDeallevels.
