Financial Services

What if Unions Never Existed?

January 16, 2017

North America

January 16, 2017

North America
Veronica Lara

Senior Editor, Americas

Veronica is a senior editor for The Economist Intelligence Unit's thought leadership division in New York. She specialises in market environment topics and trends that cut across industries, including the future of work, technological disruption, and economic competitiveness. In addition to these areas, she has led projects on advancements in manufacturing, historic energy demand trends, and socioeconomic topics such as organised labour, post-war impact investing and growth of cities.

Until July 2014 Veronica was the EIU's commerce and regulations analyst for 29 countries, mostly in the emerging markets. She has written for various EIU publications, on subjects such as financial inclusion, international trade, and policies aimed at attracting investment and promoting innovation.

Veronica holds master’s and bachelor’s degrees in international relations from New York University and the University of Pennsylvania, respectively. Before joining the EIU, she covered industries as diverse as defense, logistics and mining for a research advisory firm.

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What if unions had never existed to advocate for workers?

U.S. trade union membership was at its peak in the 1950s, when nearly one in three workers were union members.1 Today only one in nine belongs to a union, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics; and the figure is only one in 15 among private-sector workers.2 This decline raises stark questions not only about the challenges that unions face, but also about how the economic landscape might change if labor union membership diminishes further. Indeed, what if unions disappeared altogether?

 

Read this EIU article, sponsord by Prudential >>

 

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