Business owners and employees monitor organized labor union trends very carefully. Business owners are acutely aware of the impact of labor unions on the way that they compensate and benefit employees, and employee/employer rights. Employees are looking at the same topics but from a different perspective. The impact and strength of collective bargaining has had a significant impact on workers rights and improving work conditions in several industries throughout the recent history of the United States. One of the most significant trends noted for unions of today is the steady decline in union membership.

For the past forty years there has been a steady decline in both union membership and influence. There are several reasons for such a decline :

 the first reason having to do with employers keeping their businesses union-free. Some were active in their opposition and even hired consultants to devise legal strategies to combat unions. Other employers put workers on the management team by appointing them to the board of directors or establishing profit-sharing plans to reward employees.

 The second reason for union decline is that new additions to the labor f

Currently, the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers have a combined membership of 3.3 million. Add in the postal workers, and that totals just under 4 million union members, or about half of the total public-sector union population.

The public reaction to labor unions is one of the longest running trends maintained by The Gallup Poll. The question "Do you approve or disapprove of labor unions ?" was first asked in 1936, a year after Congress passed the Wagner Act establishing the right of most private- sector employees to join unions, to bargain collectively with their employers, and to strike. That first poll found 72% of Americans approving of unions and only 20% disapproving. Broad support has been maintained ever since, although to varying degrees. Approval of unions was greatest in the 1950s (coincident with the peak of union membership in the United States) when the approval figure reached 75%. The low point was 55%, recorded in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Today, perceptions of labor unions are about average compared to Gallup's historic trends, with 65% of Americans saying they approve and 29% saying they disapprove.

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