ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to compare trade unions in the United Kingdom, the Federal Republic of Germany, and the United States in order to show how and why they differ and what they have in common, to better explain each of the three labor movements. Space being limited, the inquiry focuses on why workers join or do not join a union, how they structure their organizations, and why they strike. It focuses on the influence social and political environments have on union membership and structure and looks into the relationship between membership, structure, and strike behavior. Changes in political climate, in law, and in the courts and government brought with them great changes in rate of union participation. The social and political atmosphere of the New Deal labor legislation and the backing of government allowed the industrial unions to flourish. Union history is a history of strikes and of measures, private and public, to thwart or to regularize them.
