2. 外语
  3. Prior to 1975, union efforts to organize public-sector clerical workers, most of whom are women, were somewhat limited. The fact

Prior to 1975, union efforts to organize public-sector clerical workers, most of whom are women, were somewhat limited. The fact

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问题     Prior to 1975, union efforts to organize public-sector clerical workers, most of whom are women, were somewhat limited. The factors favoring union- ization drives seem to have been either the presence of large numbers of workers, as in New York City, to make it worth the effort, or the concentration of small numbers in one or two locations, such as a hospital, to make it relatively easy. Receptivity to unionization on the workers part was also a consideration, but when there were large numbers involved or the clerical workers’ were the only unorganized group in a jurisdiction , the multi - occupational unions would often try to organize them regardless of the workers’ initial receptivity. The strategic reasoning was based, first, on the concern that politicians and administrators might play off unionized against non-unionized workers, and, second, on the conviction that a fully unionized public work force meant power, both at the bargaining table and in the legislature. In localities where clerical workers were few in number, were scattered in several workplaces, and expressed no interest in being orga- nized, unions more often than not ignored them in the pre-1975 period.
    But since the mid-1970’s, a different strategy has emerged. In 1977, 34 percent of government clerical workers were represented by a labor organization, compared with 46 percent of government professionals, 44 percent of government blue-collar workers, and 41 percent of government service workers. Since then, however, the biggest increases in public-sector unionization have been among clerical workers. Between 1977 and 1980, the number of unionized government workers in blue-collar and service occupations increased only about 1.5 percent, while in the white-collar occupations the increase was 20 percent and among clerical workers in particular, the increase was 22 percent.  What accounts for this upsurge in unionization among clerical workers? First, more women have entered the work force in the past few years, and more of them plan to remain working until retirement age. Consequently, they are probably more concerned than their predecessors were about job security and economic benefits. Also, the women’ s movement has succeeded in le- gitimizing the economic and political activism of women on their own behalf, thereby producing a more positive attitude toward unions. The absence of any comparable increase in unionization among private-sector clerical workers, however, identifies the primary catalyst—the structural change in the multi-occupational public-sector unions themselves. Over the past twenty years, the occupational distribution in these unions has been steadily shifting from predominantly blue-collar to predominantly white-collar. Because there are far more women in white-collar jobs, an increase in the proportion of female members has accompanied the occupational shift and has altered union policy-making in favor of organizing women and addressing women’s issues.
The author cites union efforts to achieve a fully unionized work force(lines 19 - 26)in order to account for why
选项 A、politicians might try to oppose public-sector union organizing.
B、public-sector unions have recently focused on organizing women.
C、early organizing efforts often focused on areas where there were large numbers of workers.
D、union efforts with regard to public-sector clerical workers increased dramatically after 1975.
E、unions sometimes tried to organize workers regardless of the workers’ initial interest in unionization.
答案E
解析 作者在L19—26指出工会想将工人全部组织起来是为了解释下列哪个现象?A．政客们想反对公共部门组织工会。这本身是L19—26中所说现象的一个解释。B．“focused on organizing women”在此处未提，是文章后面内容。C．易混。早先组织者经常关注工人比较集中地区。这是事实，但这不是此段论述要解释的现象。D．1975年后工会努力加大。这不是本文第一段的内容。E．正确。工会有时会不顾工人本身意愿而将他们组织起来。看L19一开始，“Thestrategic reasoning was based…”，也就是下文论证全是为了解释此strategicreasoning.
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