From Edward Silverstein,
Your Guide to Labor Issues.
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The history of labor relations begins with the Industrial Revolution of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The factory model that emerged in the post-Civil War era centered on assembly line production where employees performed repetitive tasks. Management was concerned about how quickly workers could turn out goods. There was little concern by factory owners about low wages, unsafe conditions, rampant use of child labor, and workdays that extended past 12 hours a day. Employee turnover was frequent.

Unions Form

Workers, angered by these conditions, increasingly joined together in unions. There had been unions of workers engaged in crafts since the 1700s but the more modern union became more prevalent in the 1800s. Craft unions are made up of workers in a particular industry focused on the particular craft or trade that they work in. It was in 1886 that the American Federation of Labor (AFL) was formed. It was made of individual craft unions and focused on improving wages and working conditions. Industrial unions came a few decades later, as did the sit down strike. Industrial unions are made up of all workers in the same industry organized into the same union.

Some companies, trying to avoid strikes, realized they may be able to produce better goods and keep workers satisfied by setting up a personnel department. It is believed that the first personnel department started at the National Cash Register Co. during the late 1800s and early 1900s. Grievances, discharges, safety and other employee issues were centered in one department, according to historical records from the Society for Human Resource Management.

But there were some ugly battles back then between unions and management. Some employers hired strikebreakers or refused to hire union members. Workers in the 1920s were increasingly forced to sign yellow-dog contracts -- agreements that they would not join unions.

Labor Reforms

The Norris-LaGuardia Act, passed in 1932, was the first in a series of laws which allowed unions the right organize, strike, and to use other economic leverage to deal with management. The law prohibited federal courts from enforcing yellow-dog contracts. Around the same time, the Congress of Industrial Organizations began a successful organizing campaign of employees.

Various labor laws enacted during the New Deal of the 1930s led to further union activity. Among these laws were those that set up the National Labor Relations Board and allowed private sector employees to organize, take part in collective bargaining and strike. These laws remain the basis for the modern union. Union membership grew through World War II, and in 1955 the AFL and CIO settled their differences and merged into one union federation. In the mid 1950s, trade union membership hit a historical peak with about 35% of the labor force being union members.

In the years after World War II, there was a growth in the field of industrial relations, which focused on industrial conflicts between labor and management. The field basically implemented the system of collective bargaining that grew out of the New Deal.

As more employees found themselves in white collar jobs, rather than the blue collar professions traditionally associated with unions, and technology lessened the need for workers on assembly lines, the number of union members declined. With downsizing and the shipping of jobs to overseas, unions found in the 1980s that they had even less membership and influence. This trend appears to continue into the 2000s. According to the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics, the union membership rate of employed wage and salary workers was estimated at 20.1% in 1983. That number decreased to 12.1% in 2007. The AFL-CIO estimates that about 15.4 million workers are union members as of 2008.

Human Resource Management

The current field of human resource management started to gain in popularity during the 1960s. The focus was to deter unions and avoid turnover of employees. Under the so-called Theory Y, management could trust workers and delegate authority to them and they would act responsibly. Employee input is valued and managerial controls were lessened. This evolved to viewing workers as part of a team and employees were given increasing flexibility. Under such a system, unions had less of a role. This system of workplace flexibility continues in the 2000s as the U.S. finds it has to compete with other nations in a high-tech global economy.