Union-Nonunion Earnings Differentials and the Decline of Private-Sector Unionism

Recent years have been difficult ones for the American labor movement. Especially during the past half-decade, the economic and political environment for unions has be-come increasingly hostile-dominated by a growing anti-union sentiment in manage ment; the adverse effects of industrial re-structuring, import competition, deregula-tion, and high unemployment; and the tight-ening constraints of a labor law and NLRB enforcement mechanism that have become markedly less supportive of unions. These and other external changes, as well as some continuing internal weaknesses, have thrust unions into a period of declining unio