The decline of unionism in America is a reflection of changes in society. We are increasingly a society of organizations with specific, narrow agendas rather than broad umbrella organizations. But unions at present are umbrella organizations, and they have an increasingly difficult time appealing to specific employment-related interests and concerns. Union mergers have only exacerbated this problem. The International Association of Machinists, which represents airline mechanics, now also represents baggage handlers and ticket agents.
Some mechanics are so disgruntled that they are forming a new union.
The National Education Association, the nation's largest union, began by representing teachers. Now it organizes school support personnel like janitors and bus drivers. The Teamsters represent nurses, and the United Auto Workers represent university teaching assistants. It is still possible that unions may use politics to reverse their decline. For example, the Clinton Administration clearly intended its Commission on the Future of Worker-Management Relations, the Dunlop Commission, to launch a campaign to revise national labor law to help union organizing.