Labor RelationsThis document will attempt to discuss the costs and benefits of unionism, as it exists in the United States. To understand the pros and cons, it is important to understand the environment in which unionism developed and the needs it attempted to meet. We will discuss the evolution of trade unionism over the centuries. From this understanding we can discuss the topic in relation to our current environment. Historians agree that American unionism began in the early 19th century. These early organizations were formed along the lines of Craft. Daniel Mills explains, in Labor Relations, "Craftsmen worked on their own account or in small shops. They were often in conflict with the customers or the tradesmen they supplied." (35) These associations were formed to protect their trade, rather than as a collective bargaining union. In the mid-19th century, America was in the midst of the industrial revolution. We were becoming an urban industrial society. Immigration was becoming a major source of labor supply. These large manufacturing enterprises, which exploited workers without regard to the human cost, were ripe for National Labor Organization. Jerry Borenstein states in his work Unions In Transition: "These were often poorly organized associations, short-lived and destined to disappear under the hostile pressure of employers and the government."(15) The unions of the late 19th and he early 20th centuries were formed largely to protect basic human dignity in the workplace. Unions addressed key concerns regarding safety, length of the working day and pay. They were largely unsuccessful because of the public perception of unions as socialist and anti-American. People viewed unions as an obstacle to the flow of free trade. It wasn't until the 1930s that unions, as we know them today, were created and accepted. With the passage of the Wagner Act of 1935, formal legal protection was now granted to unions in America. Unions went from being virtually outlawed by the US government to being the beneficiaries of its legal protection. Morgan Reynolds tells us, in his Power and Privilege, "the common definition of a Trade Union in American dictionaries is an organization of workers formed for the purpose of promoting the interests of its members with respect to wages, benefits, and conditions of work... .. half of the document ... highlighted by the mistreatment of much of the management workforce of downsized companies Due to a lack of solidarity and representation, much of the management workforce of companies like NYNEX, IBM and others have been thrown to the ground to wolves after long periods of service. Unions provide a means to control the unchecked power of large corporations. This is not a one-way street, however, unions must contend with the public perception of them as money grabbers. a criminal leadership. They must do everything they can to cleanse themselves of corruption. Otherwise they will end up disappearing, to the detriment of American society as a whole. Bibliography Works Cited Borenstein, Jerry. Unions in transition. New York Simon and Schuster. 1981 Reynolds, Morgan. Poor and privilege. New York. Books of the universe. 1984. Freeman, Richard. Medoff, James. What unions do. New York. Basic books. 1984. Quinn, Daniel. Labor management reports. New York McGraw-Hill. 1994Hiatt, Jonathan. Union survival strategies for the 21st century. online http//aflcio.org/publ/press96/pr03203.html March 1996. Kameras, David. AFLCIO News.