Section 2: Chapter 5, Connections in the Workplace Summary and Analysis

Work-related organizations, including unions and professional associations, are some of the more common civic connections. The pattern in these organizations is similar to other organizations in society, with an increase in the first part of the century, a plateau in the 1950s and 1960s, and a decline during the remaining decades of the twentieth century.

Labor unions have been one of the most common affiliations in America. The rate of union membership, however, has been falling since 1975. As with other organizations, the type of participation has also changed. Unions are often viewed now as paid bargaining units and the networks of reciprocity that used to exist has all but vanished. Is the change simply due to the changing reflection in the American workforce? Manufacturing has declined, but this is only part...