Another major factor contributing to organized labor’s decline in the U.S. is the global economy. Asthe market for goods and services transitioned from domestic to global, U.S. companies faced downward pressure on labor costs to remain competitive. At the same time, organized labor continued to push for generous economic terms and inflexible job protections. Many companies and their unions did not respond effectively to the impact of international competition, resulting in layoffs and plant closings in industries such as steel and auto, where unions were unable to backfill the lost jobs. By the 1990s many were asking whether unions were still relevant in the U.S. Organized labor needed a major shift in its member recruitment strategy.

By the 2000s, certain segments of the American organized labor movement struck on the idea that they could leverage success from the global economy. If corporations could be multinational, why couldn’t unions form international alliances to level the playing field? Bob King, former president of the United Aut Workers (UAW) union, was one of the first to see the benefits of forming alliances with European unions such as Germany’s IG Metall. The idea is to apply leverage “over there” through foreign labor alliances to achieve results in the U.S. in the form of neutrality and card check agreements.