Collective Bargaining - Labor relations Topic: Reasons poor performance unions 1920s Essay Question: What reasons poor performance unions 1920s? Discuss reasons. Essay 250 words length APA format.
One of the first reasons why unions failed in the 1920s was that prices had remained constant ever since the beginning of the century. While workers were accustomed to high wages from the 1917-1920 period, they had no one to turn to when wages experienced a dramatic fall during the 1920s.
Secondly, employers throughout the U.S. saw the opportunity to discredit unions and got actively involved in a process of having the masses less and less interested in unions.
The third reason is somewhat a continuation of the second, as it involves the introduction of welfare capitalism. Employers were determined to emphasize that unions were bad for the U.S. And they installed a series of programs that were dedicated to help employees -- this influencing many to believe that they were better off without having to be union members.
The fourth reason is that courts started to be even more determined to work against unions, with a series of court cases favoring enemies of unions during the period.
The final reason was that leadership was very poor in unions at the time: Gompers died in 1924 and William Green, the person succeeding him, was inexperienced and ultimately sent the movement into a downward spiral.
These five reasons came together at a terrible time for unions. Unions saw a flourishing period both during and consequent to the war and it seemed that everything was looking up as the 1920s were getting closer. However, negligence alongside of the fact that employers also had more power came together in significantly challenging the authority of unions in the 1920s.
Works cited:
Sloane, A.A. & Witney, F. (2010). Labor relations (13th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Van Tine, W.R. (1973). The Making of the Labor Bureaucrat: Union Leadership in the United States, 1870-1920. Univ of Massachusetts Press.
