The Labor Unions of 2003 look nothing like the original Labor Unions of 1886 created by Samuel Gompers. Once used to protect people's rights now is too powerful and is trampling those same rights that were once protected. Labor Unions, which did shorten the workweek and workday and improve working conditions through collective bargaining, shifted their strategy to politics. Thomas Jefferson once said that "to compel a man, to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of …showed first 75 words of 1574 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1574 total…group working on their own interests. Because Labor Unions are now more political and don't use political bargaining they have had a membership decline. Being a member though isn't necessarily good for the economy either because strikes, decreased competition, and a loss in productivity hurt the economy. Labor Unions have accomplished many great things in the past but are overall harmful to the economy and the drop in membership is just better for the economy.