UnionsUnions: aging dinosaur or sleeping giant? The labor movement and trade unionism Background and brief history Higher wages! Shorter working days! Better working conditions! These famous words resonated throughout the United States from “1790 with skilled craftsmen” (Dessler, 1997, p. 544). For two hundred years, workers in all occupations have been fighting for their rights and “searching for methods to improve their standard of living, working conditions, and job security” (Boone, 1996, p. 287). . Over time, these individuals came to the conclusion that if they worked together, they would become stronger in obtaining answers to their demands. This inspired what we know today as unions. “A union is an organized group of workers whose goal is to increase wages and influence other working conditions for its members” (Parkin, 1998, p. 344). These unions can be divided into two types: craft unions and industrial unions (World, 1998). A craft union is “a union whose membership is limited to workers who possess an identifiable skill” (Robinson, 1985, p. 69). These members tend to be better educated and trained, and more united because of common interests (World, 1998). An example of a craft union is the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (World, 1998). On the other hand, an industrialized union “is a group of workers who have varied skills and job types but who work for the same sector” (Parkin, 1998, p. 344). Unions of this type include the United Steelworkers, the United Auto Workers, and the United Transportation Union (Boone, 1996). History from the 1870s to the 1900s. The first national union founded in Philadelphia in 1869, before the Civil War, was the Knights of Labor, which “aimed to include all workers” (Encyclopedia, 1996, p. 630). For a decade this organization grew at a slow pace due to its secretive operation until the failure of the railway workers' strikes which brought its membership to over 700,000 in 1886 (Robinson, 1985) . Their advances and efforts persuaded the legislature to enact the following laws: "abolition of products manufactured by convicts, creation of labor statistics offices and prohibition of the importation of European labor under contract" (Encyclopedia, 1996, p. 630). By 1890 the membership of the Knights of Labor had fallen to just 100,000 members and membership continued...... middle of paper...... more money to try to crush the unionization plans than ten years ago. Given this, Sweeney called on all unions to keep pace and spend more on organizing (AFL-CIO sets aside…, 1999). Sweeney also called on members to give less to political parties and more to organizing efforts, hoping that registering a goal of 4 million new union family voters would restore labor's political influence (Germond and Witcover, 1997) . In addition to putting more money where it needs to go, Sweeney is also taking steps to attract minorities and women. It increased the AFL-CIO's executive council to 54 members, up from 35. In doing so, he appointed many women and minorities, increasing their share on the Executive Council from 17% to 27%. In addition to targeting women and minorities, it also targets young people. His administration recruited more than a thousand young adults through Union Summer internship programs where they developed skills and expertise on.: 4630