SUMMARY: Unions have become an important factor in our industries. For many years, unions have been the primary voice of workers to their employers. The ongoing effort of unions to help workers secure their rights in their jobs, obtain all the benefits they need, and eliminate the injustice experienced by workers in their workplace is still an ongoing process. In order to understand unions in general, knowing their roots is the best way to start. In this article, the progress of trade unions throughout history, the problems faced, the developments they have made, the laws passed and the problem facing trade unions today will be discussed.Table of ContentsI. Introduction………………………………………………………….…1II. Historical development of the union in the United States. The first unions………………………………………...…….…2b. After the civil war…………………………….……………….3-The NLUc. The Knights of Labor…………………………………………….3d. Years 1880-1900-The AFL........................................ ....... .................................3-The IWW. ....... ........................................... ....................... .................4- Creation of the Department of Labor and Laws.............................. ......4· Norris-La Guardia Act…. ..……………………....……4·National Industrial Revival Act of 1933........... ...........5· National Labor Relations Act of 1955............................5·Taft-Harley Act........... ....................................... ........... ....6·Landrum-Griffin Act........................................ ...... ..................7-The CIO............................ ...... ............................................ ...................... ........5th. AFL-CIO reunification............................................ .... ...................5f. The decline in union membership............................................ ..... ....8III. Conclusion................................................. ...............10Workers are the most important aspect of business because no business can operate without its employees. In return, employers must respond to the needs of their workers and, in order to negotiate workers' demands, they need some type of representation capable of negotiating with employers and their colleagues. The representation demanded by each worker took the form of the creation of unions. Unions are in the middle of paper...wink of union power. About.com11. “The labor movement in America. » http://www.socialstudieshelp.com/Eco_Unionization.htm12. “The decline of unions linked to the rise of globalization”. VOANews.com13. Sleigh, Stephen. “What are the unions doing? » WORKS CITED: “Worker movement”. The World Book Encyclopedia. 5th ed. 2005. 4-13. “Unions in the United States”. MSN Encarta. 1993-2005. October 25, 2007.<encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761553112/Labor_Union.html>Pride, William, Robert Hughes, Jack Kapoor. Business. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2007. Sleigh, Stephen R. “What Do Unions Do?” -- A Unionist's Point of View. Journal of Labor Research 26.4 (Fall 2005): 623-640. Premier Business Source. EBSCO. The Guardia Comm. College, Long Island City, New York. October 21, 2007. “The decline of union power. » About.com: Economy. November 2, 2007<http://economys.about.com/od/laborinamerica/a/union_decline.htm>“The labor movement in America”. The Social Studies Help Center. November 2, 2007. < http://www.socialstudieshelp.com/Eco_Unionization.htm>