The New York Times of January 13 carried a report entitled "Unions bedevilled by unemployment..", it reads
"for the nafion's unions, the year just ended was one of frustration and disappointment, The centnal fact of life on the business front was the continuing high level of unemployment. The year ended as it began, with the unemployment rate pushing 6% of the labour forcese. The relatively high level of unemployment has meant, for the unions, diminished membership and a weakened position at the bargaining table. It vastly complicated their major chore in negotiations ~— to work out ways of protecting their members from the impact of automation and other forms of technological change that are cutting into the ranks of the unskilled and semi-skilled and remaking the country's occupational map. The year brought tangible evidence that the unions' concerns were not idlo speculation, A labour department report put total union membership of national and international unions with headquarters in the United States at 12,630,000, This was a drop of nearly 500,000 mombers in two years. The loss was concentrated in manufacturing, a principal centre of union strength.
One set of Government figures also she also showed a marked decrease in the size of union wage gains. Another Ze Of union wage gains. Another showed that the annual rate of increase 01 or output per man hour in the private non~farm economy ‘was rising he tas that the percentage of gain in non farm arm earnings was droppi nge The conclusion that the unions drew from these figures was that thoy were not getting a fair share.