Information technology: The threat to unions

Conclusions Although seldom recognized in the flurry of enthusiastic support, information technology has a dark side for unions. The Internet and the Web, with its power and convenience magnified by wireless communication, will reduce the relevancy of the traditional workplace-centered appeals of organizing unions. With greater physical distance and less psychological attachment to their employer and workplace, professional, clerical, technical, and sales workers will believe that collective bargaining does not fit their situations. Organizing these workers will require that unions not only have to broaden their mode of representation, perhaps even reviving associate membership, but also compete against advocacy and identity organizations. To make matters even worse, when unions try to organize any group of workers regardless of whether or not their jobs have been transformed by information technology, and when unions try to maintain their influence in already organized workplaces, they will have to compete against employer-controlled intranets.