by Terri Coop

Created on: May 21, 2007   Last Updated: September 01, 2007

Unions and trade guilds have been around since the late 1600s. However, in the 1800s, two inventions, the cotton gin and the steam-powered loom, led to the factory-centered work environment that spawned the modern labor movement.

Because of labor unions, we have no concept of working conditions in these early factories. The machines were brutish and their operation straightforward. The worker was the least expensive and most dispensable piece of the operation. Women and children replaced men at the looms because they could be paid less and were more docile workers. Businesses repaired machines, but discarded workers who were injured or old.

The first modern union, the American Federation of Labor (AFL), was founded in 1886 with the following principle:

"The various trades have been affected by the introduction of machinery, the subdivision of labor, the use of women's and children's labor and the lack of an apprentice system - so that the skilled trades were rapidly sinking to the level of pauper labor. To protect the skilled labor of America from being reduced to beggary and to sustain the standard of American workmanship and skill, the trades unions of America have been established."

This concept is still evident today in the simplified motto of the United Auto Workers:

"United we stand. Divided we beg."

In 1935, the Committee for Industrial Organization (CIO) was formed to organize workers by industry, regardless of skill. The AFL and the CIO disagreed, often bitterly, until their eventual merger in 1955. Organizations like the AFL-CIO, the Teamsters and the United Auto Workers increased safety, improved working conditions and raised the standard of living for millions of workers in the United States. Even non-union businesses were forced to improve wages and conditions for fear of a union takeover. Benefits, such as health insurance and vacation, were unheard of before unionization.

However, in the last four decades, unions have declined in membership and influence. Businesses became increasingly savvy about defeating union campaigns. Younger workers, who had no knowledge of how it used to be,' saw no benefit in joining the union. A general tarnishing of the unions' reputation because of purported underworld connections eroded workers' faith in the organizations. However, the primary reason for the decline is that unions have been victims of their own success. Manufacturing wages rose so high that industries lost their competitiveness and the hidebound union hierarchy was too slow to adapt to an economy shifting from manufacturing to technology. Only time will tell if unions remain a viable force in the 21st century.

However, you feel about unions personally, you owe a considerable portion of the health, safety, wage and labor laws that protect you every day to the unions. When the workers united, the businesses were forced to listen, acknowledge their value, and reform the workplace.

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