document_title: The Dark Knight Rises

question_text: where does batman go in the dark knight rises

text: The Dark Knight Rises

text: Plot

text: Eight years after the death of District Attorney Harvey Dent, Batman has disappeared and organized crime has been eradicated in Gotham City thanks to the Dent Act. Police Commissioner James Gordon has kept secret Dent's murderous rampage and allowed blame for his crimes to fall on Batman. He writes a resignation speech revealing the truth, but decides that the city is not ready to hear it.

text: Bruce Wayne has become a recluse, and Wayne Enterprises is losing profits after Wayne discontinued his fusion reactor project when he learned that it could be weaponized. Cat burglar Selina Kyle obtains Wayne's fingerprints from his home and tries to sell the fingerprints to Wayne's corporate rival John Daggett. She is double-crossed at the exchange, but alerts the police. Gordon and the police arrive and pursue Daggett's henchmen into the sewers while Selina flees. The men capture Gordon and take him to Bane, a masked terrorist and former member of the League of Shadows, who has set up his base in the sewers. Gordon escapes and is found by rookie officer John Blake. Blake, a fellow orphan, confronts Bruce and convinces him to return as Batman.

text: Bane attacks the Gotham Stock Exchange by using Wayne's fingerprints in a transaction that leaves Wayne bankrupt. Wayne's butler, Alfred Pennyworth, reveals that Rachel Dawes had intended to marry Dent before she died, and then resigns in an attempt to convince Bruce to move on with his life. Wayne finds comfort in Wayne Enterprises CEO Miranda Tate, who becomes his lover.

text: Kyle agrees to take Batman to Bane but instead leads him into Bane's trap. Bane reveals that he intends to fulfill Ra's al Ghul's mission to destroy Gotham, and then steals Batman's technology from Wayne Enterprises. Bane fights Batman and delivers a crippling blow to his back, before taking him abroad to an underground prison. There, the inmates tell Wayne the story of Ra's al Ghul's child, who was born and raised in the prison before finally escaping — the only prisoner to have done so.

text: Bane lures Gotham's police underground and uses explosives to trap them and destroy the bridges surrounding the city. He kills Mayor Anthony Garcia and forces a nuclear physicist to convert the reactor core into an atomic bomb before killing him as well. Bane reads Gordon's speech to the public, and releases the prisoners of Blackgate Penitentiary, initiating anarchy while holding the city hostage and isolated with the bomb.

text: Months later, a recovered Wayne escapes from the prison and returns to Gotham. Batman frees the trapped police and they clash with Bane's army in the streets; during the battle, Batman overpowers Bane. Tate intervenes and stabs Batman, revealing herself to be Talia al Ghul, Ra's al Ghul's daughter. She activates the detonator, but Gordon blocks her signal. Talia leaves to find the bomb while Bane prepares to kill Batman, but Kyle arrives and kills Bane. Batman and Kyle pursue Talia, hoping to bring the bomb back to the reactor chamber where it can be stabilized. Talia's truck crashes, but she remotely floods and destroys the reactor chamber before dying. With no way to stop the detonation, Batman uses the Bat to haul the bomb far over the bay, where it safely explodes.

text: In the aftermath, Batman is presumed dead and is honored as a hero. With Wayne presumed dead as well, Wayne Manor becomes an orphanage, and his remaining estate is left to Alfred. While visiting Florence, Alfred discovers that Wayne is alive, and in a relationship with Kyle. Blake resigns from the police force and, in accordance with Wayne's will, inherits the Batcave.

text: Cast

text: Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne / Batman:

text: Michael Caine as Alfred Pennyworth:[12]

text: Gary Oldman as James Gordon:[12]

text: Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle / Catwoman:[14][15]

text: Tom Hardy as Bane:[14]

text: Marion Cotillard as Miranda Tate / Talia al Ghul:

text: Joseph Gordon-Levitt as John Blake:

text: Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox:[12]

text: Matthew Modine appears as Peter Foley, Gordon's second-in-command that disdains Batman.[28] Ben Mendelsohn portrays John Daggett, a rival billionaire socialite who employs Bane in his plan to take control of Wayne Enterprises, and Burn Gorman appears as Daggett's assistant and Executive Vice President Philip Stryver.[29] Alon Abutbul portrays Leonid Pavel, a Russian nuclear physicist who is kidnapped from Uzbekistan by Bane and forced to convert the new Wayne Enterprises reactor core into a bomb.[30][31] Juno Temple plays Jen, Kyle's friend and accomplice,[32] and Daniel Sunjata portrays Mark Jones, a U.S. Special Ops officer who leads a task force into Gotham to assist Gordon and the GCPD in freeing the city from Bane's rule.[29][33] Chris Ellis appears as Father Reilly, a priest at the orphanage that Blake grew up in.[34] Brett Cullen portrays Byron Gilley, a U.S. congressman who is kidnapped on Harvey Dent Day by Kyle.[34]

text: Cillian Murphy reprises his role as Jonathan Crane / Scarecrow from previous films,[35] as does Liam Neeson as Ra's al Ghul, who appears to Bruce in a hallucination.[36][37] Josh Pence portrays Ra's al Ghul in scenes set thirty years before the events of Batman Begins.[38] Nestor Carbonell also returns as Anthony Garcia, Gotham's mayor.[39] Other cast members include Aidan Gillen as CIA agent Bill Wilson[40][41] (referred to solely as "CIA" in the film's dialogue; the character's name is revealed in the film's novelization);[42] Rob Brown and Desmond Harrington as police officers; Josh Stewart as Bane's right-hand man Barsad,[43] Christopher Judge as one of Bane's henchmen,[44] Noel Gugliemi as Bane's exile compeller, and Tom Conti as a prisoner. William Devane portrays the President of the United States. Aaron Eckhart expressed enthusiasm in returning for a sequel if asked, although he later stated Nolan verified that his character, Harvey Dent / Two-Face, is dead,[45] and only archive footage of Eckhart from The Dark Knight appears in the film.[46]

text: Several members of the Pittsburgh Steelers have cameo appearances as members of the fictional Gotham Rogues football team in the film, including Ben Roethlisberger, Hines Ward, Troy Polamalu, Willie Colon, Maurkice Pouncey, Mike Wallace, Heath Miller, Aaron Smith, Ryan Clark, James Farrior, LaMarr Woodley, and Casey Hampton,[47][48] and former Steelers head coach Bill Cowher as the head coach of the Rogues.[49] Pittsburgh mayor Luke Ravenstahl, a kicker in college, appears as the kicker for the Rogues' opponents, the Rapid City Monuments.[50] In 2008, the Rooney family sold a minority stake in the team to Thomas Tull, the CEO and president of Legendary Pictures, which produced The Dark Knight Rises.[51] United States Senator Patrick Leahy, who had made a cameo appearance in The Dark Knight, returned in The Dark Knight Rises,[52] as a Wayne Enterprises board member. Thomas Lennon, who had appeared as a doctor in Memento, once again plays a doctor. India Wadsworth plays the wife of Ra's al Ghul and the mother of Talia.[53]

text: Production

text: Development

text:
"The key thing that makes the third film a great possibility for us is that we want to finish our story [...] rather than infinitely blowing up the balloon and expanding the story [...] Unlike the comics, these things don't go on forever in film and viewing it as a story with an end is useful. Viewing it as an ending, that sets you very much on the right track about the appropriate conclusion."

—Christopher Nolan, confirming his involvement in The Dark Knight Rises.[54]

tag: div

text: Warner Bros. president of production Jeff Robinov had hoped a third film would be released in 2011 or 2012.[55] Nolan wanted the story for the third installment to keep him emotionally invested. "On a more superficial level, I have to ask the question," he reasoned, "how many good third movies in a franchise can people name?"[56] Nolan said that he never even thought a third film was possible in the foreword for his book The Art and Making of the Dark Knight Trilogy.[57] Nolan only agreed to a third film on the basis of finding a worthwhile story, fearing that he would become bored halfway through production if he discovered the film to be unnecessary.[58] By December 2008, Nolan completed a rough story outline, before he committed himself to Inception.[59] Later in December, Alan F. Horn confirmed that while discussions with Nolan about a third film were ongoing, no casting had been done, and Horn denied all such rumors.[60] Before Nolan confirmed his involvement, Gary Oldman had said he was confident Nolan would return.[61]

text: Following the success of the Joker in The Dark Knight, studio executives wished for the Riddler to be included as the primary villain as he was considered a similar character and encouraged the casting of Leonardo DiCaprio.[62] However, Nolan wanted the antagonist to be vastly different from the previous incarnations and committed to using Bane instead,[62] citing the need for a character with a physical presence within the film.[63] He was initially unfamiliar with the character's back-story,[20] but pointed out the appeal of an archetype, labelling it as "the extreme of some type of villainy". When comparing the choice of Bane with the Joker, Nolan highlighted the Joker as an example of "diabolical, chaotic anarchy and has a devilish sense of humor", juxtaposing him against Bane, whom he likened to "a classic movie monster [...] with a terrific brain."[63] Nolan has said that his draft of the script was inspired by Charles Dickens' 1859 novel A Tale of Two Cities, which centers around the French Revolution.[64] This homage to Dickens was briefly illustrated by having Bane inconspicuously finger knit paracord in the film, symbolizing his literary character Madame Defarge, and more overtly by Commissioner Gordon's eulogy for Bruce Wayne at the end of the film, which is taken directly from the classic book.[64]

text: It was not until February 9, 2010, that it was announced that Nolan had "cracked" the story of a sequel to The Dark Knight and was committed to return to the project.[65] Shortly afterward, it was announced David S. Goyer and Jonathan Nolan were working on a screenplay.[66] Goyer would leave the project during pre-production to begin work on Man of Steel; Jonathan continued writing the script based on the story by his brother Chris and Goyer.[12] Chris Nolan said that his brother's original draft was about 400 pages.[67] The film's storyline has been compared with the Batman comic book series' story arc "Knightfall" (1993), which showcased Bane; the mini-series The Dark Knight Returns (1986), in which Batman returns to Gotham City after a ten-year absence; and the story arc "No Man's Land" (1999), which depicts a Gotham cut off from the rest of the world and overrun by gangs.[68][69] The nickname "the Dark Knight" was first applied to Batman in Batman #1 (1940), in a story written by Bill Finger.[70][71] Nolan confirmed the Joker would not return in the third film, and dismissed rumors that he considered using unused footage of Heath Ledger from The Dark Knight.[72] The Dark Knight Rises reunited Nolan with many of his past collaborators, including cinematographer Wally Pfister, production designer Nathan Crowley, editor Lee Smith, costume designer Lindy Hemming, special effects supervisors Paul Franklin and Chris Corbould, and composer Hans Zimmer.[73]

text: Filming

text: During location scouting in December 2010, Nolan began searching for locations such as India, Romania, and Michigan.[74][75][76] According to the Romania Insider, Nolan was interested in Bucharest's historical centers, Edgar Quinet Street, the Palace of the Parliament, and the Turda salt mine.[74] The film had an estimated budget of $250–300 million, coming down to about $230 million after tax credits.[3] Nolan elected not to film in 3-D, but instead stated that he intended to focus on improving image quality and scale using the IMAX format.[77] The Dark Knight Rises featured over an hour of footage shot in IMAX (by comparison, The Dark Knight contained 28 minutes).[78][79] Nolan had several meetings with IMAX Vice-President David Keighley to work on the logistics of projecting films in digital IMAX venues.[79] Wally Pfister had expressed interest in shooting the film entirely in IMAX,[80] but because of the considerable noise made by IMAX cameras, 35mm and 70mm cameras had to be used for shooting the film's dialogue scenes,[79][81] as dialogue had to be dubbed when shot with IMAX cameras.[82] Chairman and president of the IMAX Corporation Greg Foster stated that IMAX planned to run the film in its theatres for two months, despite only being contractually committed to run the film for two weeks.[83] Nolan also bypassed the use of a digital intermediate for the film, resulting in less manipulation of the filmed image and higher film resolution.[84]

text: Filming was scheduled to start in May and conclude in November 2011.[85] Principal photography commenced on May 6, 2011, in Jodhpur, India at the Mehrangarh Fort[86][87][88] before moving to Pittsburgh, where it operated under the working title Magnus Rex to reduce the visibility of the production.[89][90] Shooting locations within the city included Heinz Field, the site of an American football game,[91] with members of the Pittsburgh Steelers playing the Gotham Rogues football team. More than 11,000 extras were used to depict the shot sequence.[7][47][48] Filming in Pittsburgh also took place at the Mellon Institute and Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University.[90] A letter sent out to residents and business owners detailing road closures revealed that the streets of the city would be featured "as the start of [the] film".[92] 9-1-1 operators were told to expect an increase in calls related to gunshots and explosions in the film's production.[93] The Pittsburgh leg of production wrapped after three weeks on August 21, 2011.[94] The next portion of the filming began in Los Angeles in late August and finished up on October 23 after nine weeks of filming. New York and New Jersey were the next places of filming. The Trump Tower replaced the Richard J. Daley Center as the location for the headquarters of Wayne Enterprises.[95] In November 2011, shooting shifted to Newark, New Jersey.[96][97] Newark City Hall and Military Park were among the locations used for filming.[98] Other shooting locations include London and Glasgow, the latter of which was used for "additional exterior filming".[99] Principal photography concluded on November 14, 2011.[100] The external waterfall scene at the end of the film was shot at Sgwd Henrhyd falls, on the edge of the Brecon Beacons National Park in Wales.[101]

text: Production photos from filming in Pittsburgh showed a second Tumbler chassis after the first was destroyed, indicating that a new Batmobile would be in the film, following the destruction of the first in The Dark Knight.[102] Further set photos revealed a "new vehicle" being transported to Wabash Tunnel, prompting speculation as to its nature.[103] In June 2011, Autoblog confirmed the presence of the new Lamborghini Aventador on the film set.[104]

text: Several accidents occurred during the production of the film. While filming at Wollaton Hall, Nottingham, a tractor-trailer crashed into the main entrance, though no one was injured.[105] A stuntman parachutist later crashed through the roof of a home in Cairngorm Gliding Club, Feshiebridge in Scotland, and became wedged there after a failed landing during a skydiving stunt; he was not seriously injured.[106] While filming scenes in Pittsburgh, Hathaway's stunt double crashed into an IMAX camera while filming a sequence that required her to ride a Batpod down a flight of stairs during a riot. There were no injuries, but the camera was destroyed.[107] A second accident took place in Pittsburgh when the truck carrying the then-unidentified vehicle later termed "the Bat" went off-course and crashed into a lighting array, damaging the model of the aircraft. Production was delayed while the model was repaired.[108]

text: Shortly before Christmas of 2011, Christopher Nolan invited several prominent directors, including Edgar Wright, Michael Bay, Bryan Singer, Jon Favreau, Eli Roth, Duncan Jones and Stephen Daldry, to Universal CityWalk's IMAX theatre for a private screening of the first six minutes of The Dark Knight Rises, which had been shot on IMAX film and edited from the original camera negative. Nolan, feeling that the use of film stock in cinema is currently being phased out due to the introduction of digital cinematography and projection, used this screening to make a case for the continued use of film, which he asserts still offers superior image quality to any digital format, and warned the filmmakers that unless they continued to assert their choice to use film in their productions, they may eventually lose it as an option.[109][110] Nolan explained; "I wanted to give them a chance to see the potential, because I think IMAX is the best film format that was ever invented. It's the gold standard and what any other technology has to match up to, but none have, in my opinion. The message I wanted to put out there was that no one is taking anyone's digital cameras away. But if we want film to continue as an option, and someone is working on a big studio movie with the resources and the power to insist [on] film, they should say so. I felt as if I didn't say anything, and then we started to lose that option, it would be a shame. When I look at a digitally acquired and projected image, it looks inferior against an original negative anamorphic print or an IMAX one."[109]

text: Design

text: Costume design

text: Costume designer Lindy Hemming explained that Bane uses a mask to inhale an analgesic gas, which, in director Christopher Nolan's words, "keeps his pain just below the threshold so he can function." In designing Bane's costume, Hemming needed it to look "like an amalgam of all sorts of bits and pieces he cobbled together, as he passed through some very remote places. We made parts of his vest, for example, from fragments of an old military tent. His clothes are militaristic, but are not in any way a uniform." Hemming also designed Bane's mask to look "animalistic".[7][111][112] Costume effects supervisor Graham Churchyard created a three-dimensional model of actor Tom Hardy's face and skull to design the mask, allowing the mask to perfectly conform to the contours of Hardy's face.[7] Hemming personally designed Bane's coat, which she admitted took two years to complete. Taking inspiration from a Swedish army jacket and a frock coat from the French Revolution, it was designed to make Bane look like equal parts dictatorial and revolutionary.[7] The design was difficult as Hemming struggled to find a tailor in Los Angeles who could work with shearling.[113]

text: The Batsuit consisted of 110 separate pieces, each of which had to be replicated dozens of times over the course of the production. The base layer was made of a polyester mesh that is utilized by the military and high-tech sports manufacturers because of its breathability and moisture-wicking properties. Molded pieces of flexible urethane were then attached to the mesh, to form the overall body armor plating. Carbon fiber panels were placed inside the sections on the legs, chest and abdomen. The cowl was sculpted from a cast of Bale's face and head to become a perfect fit for Christian Bale. The suit remained unchanged for the film since The Dark Knight.[7]

text: In creating Selina Kyle's catsuit, two layers of material were used, with the outer layer being polyurethane coated spandex, embossed with a hexagonal pattern. The catsuit also consisted of elbow-length gloves, a utility belt, and thigh-high boots with spike heels.[7]

text: Production design

text: Concept artist Tully Summers commented on Nolan's style of cinematography when asked about the difference between his designs for this film and fantasy-based designs for Men in Black 3: "The difference for me was Christopher Nolan's visual style. One of the things that makes his Batman movies so compelling is their tone of plausibility. He will often prefer a raw, grittier design over one that is very sleek and product design pretty. It's sort of a practical military aesthetic. This stuff is made to work, not impress shoppers. The Dark Knight Rises is a war film." Producer Emma Thomas stated this Batman film has a different visual aesthetic from the first two Nolan-directed features, explaining that "it's meant to be winter in Gotham, so that right there is going to lend a whole different look to the film."[114]

text: The film introduces a vehicle that has been compared with the Batplane and the Batcopter, dubbed "the Bat". In designing the Bat, Nathan Crowley approached it as if it were an actual military project, emphasising the need for it to "fit into the same family" as the Tumbler and the Batpod. The final version of the Bat takes its design cues from the Harrier Jump Jet, Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey and the Boeing AH-64 Apache.[7] Chris Corbould described the Bat's size and shape as presenting a major challenge for filming given Christopher Nolan's emphasis on practical effects over computer-generated imagery. In order to make the Bat "fly", it was variously supported by wires, suspended from cranes and helicopters, and mounted on a purpose-built vehicle with hydraulic controls to simulate movement.[7][115][116]

text: When designing the Batcave set, Crowley and fellow production designer Kevin Kavanaugh hit upon the idea of flooding the Batcave and having Batman's equipment, the Batsuit and a supercomputer rise from the water.[7] Another set was designed at Cardington as an "underground prison", a rough-hewn labyrinth of stone cells in a vast abyss with a 120 foot (37 m) vertical shaft leading to the surface. Exteriors above the prison were filmed in Jodhpur, India, chosen because the "forbidding landscape added to the desolation".[7]

text: Music

text: In an interview in October 2010, composer Hans Zimmer confirmed that he would be returning to score The Dark Knight Rises. James Newton Howard was offered to return and write the score with Zimmer as he did for Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, but he chose not to because he noted that the chemistry established between Zimmer and Nolan during the making of Inception would make him seem like a "third wheel".[117] Zimmer included several cues from the earlier scores, but explains that he wanted to go in a "completely different direction" for Bane's theme. While the theme accompanying Selina Kyle is deliberately ambiguous, the musical thread spanning throughout the trilogy was composed exclusively for Bruce Wayne.[7]

text: The film features a prevalent Moroccan chant of the phrase deshi basara (proper transliteration: Tījī basara’ah) (Arabic: تيجي بسرعة), which translates to "rise up" (literally: "come quickly").[118][119] In November 2011, Zimmer crowdsourced online audio recordings of the chant to be used in the film's score.[120][121] When asked about the chant for clarification, Zimmer said, "The chant became a very complicated thing because I wanted hundreds of thousands of voices, and it's not so easy to get hundreds of thousands of voices. So, we tweeted and we posted on the internet, for people who wanted to be part of it. It seemed like an interesting thing. We've created this world, over these last two movies, and somehow I think the audience and the fans have been part of this world. We do keep them in mind."[122]

text: Marketing

text: The official website launched in May 2011, introducing a viral marketing campaign similar to the one used to promote The Dark Knight. The website streamed an encrypted audio file described by users as chanting. Users decrypted the audio to the Twitter hashtag, "#TheFireRises". Warner Bros. removed a pixel from the webpage for every tweet using the hashtag. The website revealed the first official image of Bane.[123]

text: In July 2011, a teaser trailer leaked online before its official release with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2.[124] The studio released the teaser three days after the leak. The trailer received mixed responses; Stephen Spencer Davis of Slate wrote it successfully built hype,[124] while Kofi Outlaw of ScreenRant showed disappointment, claiming it was more of an "announcement trailer" than an actual teaser trailer. Outlaw criticized the quality, writing that a scene depicting Commissioner Gordon in a hospital bed was overly dramatic, had "hammy" dialogue, and was difficult to understand due to Gordon's labored breathing. Outlaw wrote that the sweeping shot of Gotham City had poor CGI and was too reminiscent of the Inception trailer.[125] The theatrical trailer leaked online, like the teaser trailer, before being released the following week attached to theatrical prints of Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows.[126][127][128] Critics noted political undertones with dialogue foreshadowing the theme of income inequality and an "Occupy Gotham" campaign within the world of the story.[129][130][131] Receiving more than 12.5 million views in the first 24 hours after its release, the trailer set the record for most combined downloads from iTunes, beating the previous record held by The Avengers.[132] However, the second trailer for The Avengers again set the record with 13.7 million downloads.[133] Warner Bros. attached a second theatrical trailer for The Dark Knight Rises to theatrical prints of The Avengers. An "unnamed" Warner Brothers executive clarified that "We see this placement as a good strategic decision. We always want our trailers to be seen with films that people want to see—and a lot of people will be going to The Avengers!" The executive also commented that the trailer will "provide the best potential exposure for TDKR."[134] Warner Bros. released the trailer online on April 30, 2012, approximately four days before they attached it to theatrical prints of The Avengers.[135]

text: Continuing a method used with The Dark Knight whereby the opening sequence of the film was attached to IMAX prints of I Am Legend seven months before release,[136] a six-minute prologue of The Dark Knight Rises was attached to 70mm IMAX prints of Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, again approximately seven months before release.[137] Critical reaction to the prologue was positive,[138][139][140] with one critic commenting that "no one gets to make a film on this kind of scale anymore. Except for Christopher Nolan," though a round-up of reviews highlighted the way many critics found Tom Hardy's dialogue very difficult to hear.[141] Addressing the issue in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Nolan said "I think when people see the film, things will come into focus. Bane is very complex and very interesting and when people see the finished film people will be very entertained by him."[142]

text: Viral marketing campaigns for the film continued as magazine companies Empire and Wired received "CIA documents" concerning a "Dr. Leonid Pavel", with its mugshot connected to actor Alon Abutbul. According to the first document, Pavel is a missing Russian nuclear physicist, while the second document appears to be an edited transcript of a conversation discussing the handover of Dr. Pavel to the CIA by Georgian separatists, but with most of the conversation redacted.[31] These were later shown to be plot elements of the six-minute prologue.[138] The official Twitter account later linked to another censored document, this time, referencing "Operation Early Bird". A website of the same name was discovered, revealing a countdown timer. When the countdown finished, the site presented a map showing all available theaters that would be screening the film's prologue earlier than its release.[143][144] Various websites received a package that included a cylinder map of "strike zones", and a "fire rises" T-shirt.[145] In April 2012, the film's official website was updated with a "dossier" on a suspect named "John Doe" also known as "the Batman" for an arrest, with a list of several accusations. The premise of the campaign starts when the mayor of Gotham City "redoubles" the effort to capture Batman and anyone supporting his return in preparation for the upcoming "Harvey Dent Day". The site also includes an extensive list of real-world locations where "graffiti related to movement in support of the vigilante's return" is located. For each tweet of a specific location marked on the list, a frame of the second theatrical trailer for the film was released on a separate website.[146]

text: In January 2012, six months prior to the film's release, tickets for midnight IMAX showings in New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles went on sale and sold out immediately. Purchased tickets surfaced for sale online for over $100, compared with their original price of $17.50.[147]

text: At the American International Toy Fair, Mattel unveiled figures for Batman, Bane, and Catwoman, and Batman's flying vehicle, the Bat. The Mattel figures were also released in the "Movie Masters" line, featuring more highly detailed and articulated presentation, and Quiktek versions that feature interchangeable accessories. Lego released building sets and mini-figures based on the film and incorporating other DC Comic characters. Additionally, Funko released a series of plush toys, Mezco Toyz released vinyl figures, and Hornby released the Batman Tumbler car.[148] Other partners include Jakks Pacific, who created novelty and large-scale figures and plush toys,[149] and PPW Toys, who created a Batman themed Mr. Potato Head.[150] Various clothing items including shoes, T-shirts, hats and wallets were also produced.[151]

text: A video game of the same name was released on the same day as the release of the film for the iOS and Android devices for promoting the movie. The game features an open world with primary focus on stealth and combat. The combat system of the game is inspired from Arkham Asylum and Arkham City. It takes place in Gotham City, with a somewhat similar but still significantly different plot from that of the movie. IGN gave it a mediocre score of 5.5/10.[152]

text: The film novelization, written by author Greg Cox and published by Titan Books, was released alongside the film on July 24, 2012.[153]

text: Warner Bros. partnered with Mountain Dew to do a cross-promotion that included a special paint scheme on the number 88 Chevrolet Impala owned by Hendrick Motorsports and driven by Dale Earnhardt, Jr. in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.[154] On June 17, 2012, the car won the 2012 Quicken Loans 400 at Michigan International Speedway.[155] On July 4, 2012, the studio signed a deal with Formula One team Lotus F1 to have the film's logos appear on the Lotus E20s driven by Kimi Räikkönen and Romain Grosjean at the 2012 British Grand Prix.[156] Räikkönen and Grosjean went on to finish the race in fifth and sixth place respectively.[157] Warner Bros. had previously followed a similar promotion at the 2008 British Grand Prix, when the now-defunct Toyota F1 carried a livery to promote The Dark Knight.[158]

text: Two digital comic books entitled Batman Origins[159] and The Dark Knight: Prologue[160] were released exclusively for Nokia Lumia devices. A special movie application has also been released, featuring trailers, wallpapers, movie schedules and Batman trivias.[161] Limited editions of the Lumia 710, Lumia 800 and Lumia 900 were also released featuring a laser-etched Batman logo.[162][163][164]

text: Shooting in Aurora, Colorado

text:
"I would not presume to know anything about the victims of the shooting but that they were there last night to watch a movie. I believe movies are one of the great American art forms and the shared experience of watching a story unfold on screen is an important and joyful pastime. The movie theatre is my home, and the idea that someone would violate that innocent and hopeful place in such an unbearably savage way is devastating to me. Nothing any of us can say could ever adequately express our feelings for the innocent victims of this appalling crime, but our thoughts are with them and their families."

—Director Christopher Nolan's reaction to the theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado.[165]

text: On July 20, 2012, during a midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises at the Century 16 cinema in Aurora, Colorado, a gunman wearing a gas mask opened fire inside the theater,[166] killing 12 people and injuring 58 others.[167][168] Police responding to the shooting apprehended a suspect later identified as 24-year-old James Eagan Holmes[169] shortly after arriving on the scene.[170] Initial reports stated that Holmes identified himself as "the Joker" at the time of his arrest.[171][172]

text: Warner Bros. cancelled the Paris, Mexico, and Japan premieres of The Dark Knight Rises,[173][174] and suspended the film's marketing campaign in Finland.[175] Several broadcast networks also suspended television ads for the film in the United States.[176] The trailer for Gangster Squad, another Warner Bros. movie included in the screening of The Dark Knight Rises, was removed as it contains a scene which shows gangsters shooting submachine guns at moviegoers through the screen, similar to the shooting in Aurora.[177]

text: Director Christopher Nolan released a public statement calling the shooting "unbearably savage".[165] Other stars of the film released statements expressing their condolences, with star Christian Bale paying a personal visit to the survivors and the memorial in Aurora.[178]

text: Release

text: On July 6, 2012, Warner Bros. held a special IMAX screening of The Dark Knight Rises for more than one hundred reporters and critics. However, technical issues with the computer device synchronizing the sound and picture forced the studio to postpone the screening by a day.[179] The film later premiered on July 16 at the AMC Lincoln Square Theater in New York City, New York,[180] followed by a European premiere on July 18 at Leicester Square in London, England.[181] The film was released in Australia and New Zealand on July 19,[182] and was later released in North America and the United Kingdom on July 20.[183][184]

text: Reception

text: The Dark Knight Rises received positive reviews from critics.[185][186][187] Film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gave The Dark Knight Rises an approval rating of 87% based on 345 reviews, and a rating average of 8/10. The we site's critical consensus reads, "The Dark Knight Rises is an ambitious, thoughtful, and potent action film that concludes Christopher Nolan's franchise in spectacular fashion."[188] Metacritic, another review aggregator, assigned the film a weighted average score of 78 out of 100, based on 45 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[189] CinemaScore reported that audiences gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.[190]

text: The Telegraph granted the film a maximum score of five stars, stating that it is "a superhero film without a superhero," comparing it with The Godfather Part II and praising Hardy's performance as well as the film's intricate plot and narrative.[191] Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times thought the film was "potent, persuasive and hypnotic" and that it was "more than an exceptional superhero movie, it is masterful filmmaking by any standard."[192] The Playlists Todd Gilchrist wrote "A cinematic, cultural and personal triumph, The Dark Knight Rises is emotionally inspiring, aesthetically significant and critically important for America itself – as a mirror of both sober reflection and resilient hope."[193] IGN gave it a 9 out of 10, noting similarities in tone and theme to Batman Begins over the trilogy's second installment The Dark Knight, but also describing Bane as "that bit less interesting to watch" than Ledger's Joker, despite praising his "menacing voice" and "body language-driven performance".[194] The Guardian scored the film four out of five stars, calling it a film of "granite, monolithic intensity", yet also calling it a "hammy, portentous affair".[195] Andrew O'Hehir of Salon writes "if The Dark Knight Rises is a fascist film, it's a great fascist film, and arguably the biggest, darkest, most thrilling and disturbing and utterly balls-out spectacle ever created for the screen".[196] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three out of four stars, stating "the film begins slowly with a murky plot and too many new characters, but builds to a sensational climax."[197] Film critic Richard Roeper gave the film an "A", calling it "a majestic, gorgeous, brutal and richly satisfying epic", and citing the final scenes of the picture as "the best five minutes of any film this year."[198] The London Film Review gave the film a B and said "Nolan's film is a reminder that superheroes aren't merely a frivolous distraction, but an embodiment of our best selves."[199] The film was crowned by Forbes as the best modern comic book superhero adaptation on screen, outranking both its main summer blockbuster competitor, Marvel's The Avengers, and the trilogy's previous installment The Dark Knight.[200] In 2014, Empire ranked The Dark Knight Rises the 72nd greatest film ever made on their list of "The 301 Greatest Movies Of All Time" as voted by the magazine's readers.[201]

text: The Daily Mail's Chris Tookey said that the film was bloated and overly long, and criticized the sombre tone and lack of humor, despite praising the film's visually impressive set pieces.[202] CNN's Tom Charity said the film was a "disappointingly clunky and bombastic conclusion to a superior series" and called it Nolan's worst film.[203] Anthony Lane of The New Yorker says that the "story is dense, overlong, and studded with references that will make sense only to those intimate with Nolan's previous excursions into Batmanhood".[204]

text: In reaction to fan backlash to some of the negative reviews, Rotten Tomatoes chose to disable user commentary for the film leading up to its release.[205] Some fans had threatened violence against critics while others threatened to take down the websites of movie critics who had given the film a negative review.[206]

text: In 2014, Aidan Gillen's character in the film, CIA agent Bill Wilson, became the subject of an Internet meme popular among 4chan users known as "Baneposting", which references the dialogue between Wilson and Bane in the film's opening plane scene.[207][208][209]

text: Commentary

text: Writing in Salon, David Sirota, a progressive[210] political commentator compared The Dark Knight Rises and the game Call of Duty to 1980s popular culture reflecting the political period of the time, accusing them of perpetuating a conservative agenda: "Just as so many 1980s pop culture products reflected the spirit of the Reagan Revolution's conservative backlash, we are now seeing two blockbuster, genre-shaping products not-so-subtly reflect the Tea Party's rhetorical backlash to the powerful Occupy Wall Street zeitgeist."[211] An article in Variety reported Chuck Dixon, the co-creator of the Bane character, as saying that Bane is "far more akin to an Occupy Wall Street type if you're looking to cast him politically."[212] Catherine Shoard of the center-left[213] British publication The Guardian claimed the film "is a quite audaciously capitalist vision, radically conservative, radically vigilante, that advances a serious, stirring proposal that the wish-fulfilment of the wealthy is to be championed if they say they want to do good."[214] In contrast, liberal commentator Jonathan Chait opined in New York that "What passes for a right-wing movie these days is The Dark Knight Rises, which submits the rather modest premise that, irritating though the rich may be, actually killing them and taking all their stuff might be excessive."[215] Writing in USA Today, Bryan Alexander called Bane "the ultimate occupier" and reported that Christian Bale was amazed that the script had "foreseen" the Occupy movement.[216]

text: Nolan has denied the film criticizes the Occupy movement and insists that none of his Batman films are intended to be political: "I've had as many conversations with people who have seen the film the other way round. We throw a lot of things against the wall to see if it sticks. We put a lot of interesting questions in the air, but that's simply a backdrop for the story. What we're really trying to do is show the cracks of society, show the conflicts that somebody would try to wedge open. We're going to get wildly different interpretations of what the film is supporting and not supporting, but it's not doing any of those things. It's just telling a story. If you're saying, 'Have you made a film that's supposed to be criticizing the Occupy Wall Street movement?' – well, obviously, that's not true."[217]

text: Alternatively, politically-conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh alleged that the film was biased against 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney due to Bane's name being a homophone for Bain Capital, the financial service company Romney used to head, despite the fact that the character has existed as a major Batman foe since 1993.[218][219] In response, Nolan said that the comments were "bizarre",[220] while Dixon and Freeman said that the comments were "ridiculous".[219][221] Democratic adviser Christopher Lehane has noted the similarities between the narratives of the film and the presidential campaign.[219][222]

text: On January 20, 2017, multiple media outlets noted that a small but key part of U.S. president Donald Trump's inaugural address "had an uncanny echo" of Bane's speech after he takes control of Gotham in The Dark Knight Rises.[223][224] Trump had given the film a positive review in 2012.[225]

text: Accolades

text:
Award
Category
Recipients and nominees
Result

AFI Awards 2012
Movies of the Year
Emma Thomas, Christopher Nolan and Charles Roven
Won

British Academy of Film and Television Arts[226]
Special Visual Effects
Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Peter Bebb, Andrew Lockley
Nominated

Broadcast Film Critics Association[227]
Best Visual Effects

Nominated

Best Action Film

Nominated

Best Actor in an Action Movie
Christian Bale
Nominated

Best Actress in an Action Movie
Anne Hathaway
Nominated

Golden Trailer Awards[228]
Best in Show
"Chant"
Won

Summer 2012 Blockbuster Trailer
"Chant"
Won

Best International Poster
"UK Quad"
Won

Best Summer 2012 Blockbuster Poster
"Teaser One Sheet – City"
Won

Best Teaser Poster
"Teaser One Sheet City"
Nominated

Grammy Awards[229]
Best Score Soundtrack For Visual Media

Nominated

Kids Choice Awards[230]
Favorite Female Buttkicker
Anne Hathaway
Nominated

Los Angeles Film Critics Association[231]
Best Supporting Actress
Anne Hathaway (also for Les Misérables)
Runner-up

MTV Movie Awards[232]
Best Movie

Nominated

Best Hero
Christian Bale
Nominated

Best Hero
Anne Hathaway
Nominated

Best Villain
Marion Cotillard
Nominated

Best Villain
Tom Hardy
Nominated

Best Fight
Christian Bale & Tom Hardy
Nominated

Best Shirtless Performance
Christian Bale
Nominated

People's Choice Awards[233]
Favorite Face of Heroism
Anne Hathaway
Nominated

Favorite Movie

Nominated

Favorite Action Movie

Nominated

Favorite Movie Franchise

Nominated

Phoenix Film Critics Society[234]
Best Film Editing

Nominated

Satellite Awards[235]
Best Visual Effects
Chris Corbould, Paul Franklin
Nominated

Best Art Direction & Production Design
Nathan Crowley, Kevin Kavanaugh, James Hambidge, Naaman Marshall
Nominated

Saturn Awards[236][237]
Best Action of Adventure Film

Nominated

Best Director
Christopher Nolan
Nominated

Best Actor
Christian Bale
Nominated

Best Supporting Actor
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Nominated

Best Supporting Actress
Anne Hathaway
Won

Best Music
Hans Zimmer
Nominated

Screen Actors Guild Awards[238]
Outstanding Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture

Nominated

St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association[239][240]
Best Music

Nominated

Teen Choice Awards[241][242][243]
Choice Movie: Action

Nominated

Choice Movie: Actor Action
Christian Bale
Nominated

Choice Movie: Actress Action
Anne Hathaway
Won

Choice Movie: Scene Stealer
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Nominated

Choice Movie: Best Villain
Tom Hardy
Nominated

Visual Effects Society Awards[244]
Outstanding Models in a Feature Motion Picture
Scott Beverly, Alan Faucher, Ian Hunter, Steve Newburn for "Airplane Heist"
Nominated

Young Artist Award[245]
Best Performance in a Feature Film - Supporting Young Actress
Joey King
Nominated

text: Box office

text: Hours before the midnight release, several box office analysts suggested as much as a $198 million domestic opening weekend.[246][247][248] However, in the wake of the mass shooting during a midnight screening of the film, Warner Bros. decided to not report further box office figures for the movie until Monday, July 23, 2012.[249][250] As a result, other distributors also delayed the release of their official estimates as well.[251] The shooting is also speculated to have hurt the ticket sales as E! Online reported that a North Carolina audience member had stated that "this theater was kinda empty".[252] Some reports released on July 21, 2012 said that rival studios estimated that the film grossed $75 million to $77 million on its opening day.[253][254][255] Warner Brothers shortly after released a statement to ABC News stating that they delayed the release of their estimates for the opening day total of the film "out of respect for the victims and their families," and added "Warner Bros. Pictures will not be reporting box office numbers for The Dark Knight Rises throughout the weekend. Box office numbers will be released on Monday."[256]

text: The Dark Knight Rises earned $448 million in North America, and $636 million in other countries, summing up to a worldwide total of $1 billion($1084 million).[4] Worldwide, it is the sixteenth-highest-grossing film of all time[257] and the third-highest-grossing film of 2012.[258] It had a worldwide opening weekend of $248.9 million.[259] The film set a worldwide IMAX opening-weekend record with $23.8 million (overtaken by Avengers: Age of Ultron)[260][261] and also broke the record for the fastest movie to make over $50 million in IMAX theatres. IMAX CEO Richard L. Gelfond explained this by claiming, "Audiences are clearly seeking out and embracing the film the way it was meant to be seen – in IMAX."[262] On the 2012 Labor Day weekend, it became the third film distributed by Warner Bros. and the thirteenth film in cinematic history to cross the $1 billion mark.[263] The film also became the second movie (after Avatar) to reach $100 million in worldwide IMAX grosses.[264]

text: The Dark Knight Rises opened on Friday, July 20, 2012. It earned an estimated $30.6 million in midnight showings, which was the second-highest midnight gross behind Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 ($43.5 million).[265][266] It did, however, set an IMAX midnight-gross record with $2.3 million (overtaken by Avengers: Age of Ultron).[267][268] The film made $75.8 million during its opening day, achieving, at the time, the third-highest single and opening day tally of all time.[269] On July 23, 2012, it was announced that the film grossed $160.9 million for its debut weekend, which was the third-highest opening weekend ever, at the time, behind Marvel's The Avengers ($207.4 million) and Deathly Hallows – Part 2 ($169.2 million).[270] However, it did set an opening-weekend record for a 2D film (previously held by The Dark Knight)[271] and an IMAX opening-weekend record with $19.0 million (previously held by Marvel's The Avengers).[272] The film also held the top spot at the box office for its second and third weekends.[273][274] In North America, it is the thirteenth-highest-grossing film,[275] the second-highest-grossing 2012 film,[276] as well as the fourth-highest-grossing superhero film and film based on comics.[277][278] Box Office Mojo estimates that the film sold more than 55 million tickets in the US.[279]

text: Outside North America, the film opened with $88.0 million from 7,173 theaters in just 17 markets.[280] It was in first place at the box office outside North America for four consecutive weekends.[281][282] Its three largest markets are the UK, Ireland and Malta ($90.3 million), where it is the highest-grossing superhero film,[283] China ($52.8 million) and Australia ($44.2 million).[284]

text: Home media

text: The Dark Knight Rises was released on November 28, 2012 in Hong Kong and New Zealand. On December 3, it was released in the United Kingdom, and on December 4, it was released in the United States. It is available on Blu-ray, DVD, and as a digital download.[285] Coinciding with the release of this film, a box set of The Dark Knight trilogy was released.[286] Nolan oversaw the remastering process of The Dark Knight Rises into 4K resolution.[287]


document_title: Labor unions in the United States

question_text: when did unions start in the united states

question_tokens: when did unions start in the united states

root

text: Labor unions in the United States

text: History[edit]

text: Unions began forming in the mid-19th century in response to the social and economic impact of the industrial revolution. National labor unions began to form in the post-Civil War Era. The Knights of Labor emerged as a major force in the late 1880s, but it collapsed because of poor organization, lack of effective leadership, disagreement over goals, and strong opposition from employers and government forces.

tag: p

text: The American Federation of Labor, founded in 1886 and led by Samuel Gompers until his death in 1924, proved much more durable. It arose as a loose coalition of various local unions. It helped coordinate and support strikes and eventually became a major player in national politics, usually on the side of the Democrats.

text: American labor unions benefited greatly from the New Deal policies of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the 1930s. The Wagner Act, in particular, legally protected the right of unions to organize. Unions from this point developed increasingly closer ties to the Democratic Party, and are considered a backbone element of the New Deal Coalition.

text: Post-World War II[edit]

text: Pro-business conservatives gained control of Congress in 1946, and in 1947 passed the Taft-Hartley Act, drafted by Senator Robert A. Taft. President Truman vetoed it but the Conservative coalition overrode the veto. The veto override had considerable Democratic support, including 106 out of 177 Democrats in the House, and 20 out of 42 Democrats in the Senate.[14] The law, which is still in effect, banned union contributions to political candidates, restricted the power of unions to call strikes that "threatened national security," and forced the expulsion of Communist union leaders (the Supreme Court found the anticommunist provision to be unconstitutional, and it is no longer in force). The unions campaigned vigorously for years to repeal the law but failed. During the late 1950s, the Landrum Griffin Act of 1959 passed in the wake of Congressional investigations of corruption and undemocratic internal politics in the Teamsters and other unions.[15][16]

text: The percentage of workers belonging to a union (or "density") in the United States peaked in 1954 at almost 35% and the total number of union members peaked in 1979 at an estimated 21.0 million. Membership has declined since, with private sector union membership beginning a steady decline that continues into the 2010s, but the membership of public sector unions grew steadily.

text: After 1960 public sector unions grew rapidly and secured good wages and high pensions for their members. While manufacturing and farming steadily declined, state- and local-government employment quadrupled from 4 million workers in 1950 to 12 million in 1976 and 16.6 million in 2009.[17] Adding in the 3.7 million federal civilian employees, in 2010 8.4 million government workers were represented by unions,[18] including 31% of federal workers, 35% of state workers and 46% of local workers.[19] As Daniel Disalvo notes, "In today's public sector, good pay, generous benefits, and job security make possible a stable middle-class existence for nearly everyone from janitors to jailors."[20]

text: By the 1970s, a rapidly increasing flow of imports (such as automobiles, steel and electronics from Germany and Japan, and clothing and shoes from Asia) undercut American producers.[21] By the 1980s there was a large-scale shift in employment with fewer workers in high-wage sectors and more in the low-wage sectors.[22] Many companies closed or moved factories to Southern states (where unions were weak),[23] countered the threat of a strike by threatening to close or move a plant,[24] or moved their factories offshore to low-wage countries.[25] The number of major strikes and lockouts fell by 97% from 381 in 1970 to 187 in 1980 to only 11 in 2010.[24][26] On the political front, the shrinking unions lost influence in the Democratic Party, and pro-Union liberal Republicans faded away.[27] Union membership among workers in private industry shrank dramatically, though after 1970 there was growth in employees unions of federal, state and local governments.[28][29] The intellectual mood in the 1970s and 1980s favored deregulation and free competition.[30] Numerous industries were deregulated, including airlines, trucking, railroads and telephones, over the objections of the unions involved.[31] The climax came when President Ronald Reagan—a former union president—broke the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) strike in 1981, dealing a major blow to unions.[26][32]

text: Republicans, using conservative think tanks as idea farms, began to push through legislative blueprints to curb the power of public employee unions as well as eliminate business regulations.[25][33][34]

text: Labor unions today[edit]

text:
Labor unions in the United States

National trade union organization(s)
AFL-CIO, CtW, IWW

National government agency(ies)
United States Department of Labor
National Labor Relations Board

Primary trade union legislation
National Labor Relations Act
Taft-Hartley Act

Trade union membership
16.2 million[35]

Percentage of workforce;

  ▪ Total: 11.1%
  ▪ Public sector: 35.7%
  ▪ Private sector: 6.6%
Demographics
  ▪ Age 16–24: 5.1%
  ▪ 25–34: 10.0%
  ▪ 35–44: 13.0%
  ▪ 45–54: 14.4%
  ▪ 55–64: 14.9%
  ▪ 65 and over: 10.4%
  ▪ Women: 10.5%
  ▪ Men:
11.7%

Standard Occupational Classification

  ▪ Management, professional: 11.9%
  ▪ Service: 9.2%
  ▪ Sales and office: 6.5%
  ▪ Natural resources, construction, and
  maintenance: 15.3%
  ▪ Production, transportation, and
  material moving:
14.8%

International Labour Organization

United States is a member of the ILO

Convention ratification

Freedom of Association
Not ratified

Right to Organise
Not ratified

tag: table

text: Today most labor unions in the United States are members of one of two larger umbrella organizations: the American Federation of Labor–Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) or the Change to Win Federation, which split from the AFL-CIO in 2005-2006. Both organizations advocate policies and legislation favorable to workers in the United States and Canada, and take an active role in politics favoring the Democratic party but not exclusively so. The AFL-CIO is especially concerned with global trade and economic issues.

text: Private sector unions are regulated by the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), passed in 1935 and amended since then. The law is overseen by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), an independent federal agency. Public sector unions are regulated partly by federal and partly by state laws. In general they have shown robust growth rates, because wages and working conditions are set through negotiations with elected local and state officials. The unions' political power thus comes into play, and of course the local government cannot threaten to move elsewhere, nor is there any threat from foreign competition.

text: To join a traditional labor union, workers must either be given voluntary recognition from their employer or have a majority of workers in a bargaining unit vote for union representation.[citation needed] In either case, the government must then certify the newly formed union.[citation needed] Other forms of unionism include minority unionism, solidarity unionism, and the practices of organizations such as the Industrial Workers of the World, which do not always follow traditional organizational models.

text: Public sector worker unions are governed by labor laws and labor boards in each of the 50 states. Northern states typically model their laws and boards after the NLRA and the NLRB. In other states, public workers have no right to establish a union as a legal entity. (About 40% of public employees in the USA do not have the right to organize a legally established union.)[36][37]

text: A review conducted by the federal government on pay scale shows that employees in a labor union earn up to 33% more income than their nonunion counterparts, as well as having more job security, and safer and higher-quality work conditions.[38] The median weekly income for union workers was $973 in 2014, compared with $763 for nonunion workers.[35]

text: Labor negotiations[edit]

text: This section's factual accuracy is disputed. Relevant discussion may be found on Talk:Labor unions in the United States. Please help to ensure that disputed statements are reliably sourced. (August 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

text: Once the union has won the support of a majority of the bargaining unit and is certified in a workplace, it has the sole authority to negotiate the conditions of employment. However, under the NLRA, if a minority of employees voted for a union, those employees can then form a union which represents the rights of only those members who voted for the union.[citation needed] This minority model was once widely used, but was discarded when unions began to consistently win majority support. Unions are beginning to revisit the "members only" model of unionism because of new changes to labor law which unions view as curbing workers' ability to organize.

text: The employer and the union write the terms and conditions of employment in a legally binding contract. When disputes arise over the contract, most contracts call for the parties to resolve their differences through a grievance process to see if the dispute can be mutually resolved. If the union and the employer still cannot settle the matter, either party can choose to send the dispute to arbitration, where the case is argued before a neutral third party.

text: Right-to-work statutes forbid unions from negotiating union shops and agency shops. Thus, while unions do exist in "right-to-work" states, they are typically weaker.

text: Members of labor unions enjoy "Weingarten Rights." If management questions the union member on a matter that may lead to discipline or other changes in working conditions, union members can request representation by a union representative. Weingarten Rights are named for the first Supreme Court decision to recognize those rights.[39]

text: The NLRA goes farther in protecting the right of workers to organize unions. It protects the right of workers to engage in any "concerted activity" for mutual aid or protection. Thus, no union connection is needed. Concerted activity "in its inception involves only a speaker and a listener, for such activity is an indispensable preliminary step to employee self-organization."[40]

text: Unions are currently advocating new federal legislation, the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), that would allow workers to elect union representation by simply signing a support card (card check). The current process established by federal law requires at least 30% of employees to sign cards for the union, then wait 45 to 90 days for a federal official to conduct a secret ballot election in which a simple majority of the employees must vote for the union in order to obligate the employer to bargain.

text: Unions report that, under the present system, many employers use the 45- to 90-day period to conduct anti-union campaigns. Some opponents of this legislation fear that removing secret balloting from the process will lead to the intimidation and coercion of workers on behalf of the unions. During the 2008 elections, the Employee Free Choice Act had widespread support of many legislators in the House and Senate, and of the President. Since then, support for the "card check" provisions of the EFCA subsided substantially.

text: Membership[edit]

text: Union membership had been declining in the US since 1954, and since 1967, as union membership rates decreased, middle class incomes shrank correspondingly.[41] In 2007, the labor department reported the first increase in union memberships in 25 years and the largest increase since 1979. Most of the recent gains in union membership have been in the service sector while the number of unionized employees in the manufacturing sector has declined. Most of the gains in the service sector have come in West Coast states like California where union membership is now at 16.7% compared with a national average of about 12.1%.[42] Historically, the rapid growth of public employee unions since the 1960s has served to mask an even more dramatic decline in private-sector union membership.

text: At the apex of union density in the 1940s, only about 9.8% of public employees were represented by unions, while 33.9% of private, non-agricultural workers had such representation. In this decade, those proportions have essentially reversed, with 36% of public workers being represented by unions while private sector union density had plummeted to around 7%. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics most recent survey indicates that union membership in the US has risen to 12.4% of all workers, from 12.1% in 2007. For a short period, private sector union membership rebounded, increasing from 7.5% in 2007 to 7.6% in 2008.[35] However, that trend has since reversed. In 2013 there were 14.5 million members in the U.S., compared with 17.7 million in 1983. In 2013, the percentage of workers belonging to a union was 11.3%, compared to 20.1% in 1983. The rate for the private sector was 6.7%, and for the public sector 35.3%.[1]

text: In the ten years 2005 through 2014, the National Labor Relations Board recorded 18,577 labor union representation elections; in 11,086 of these elections (60 percent), the majority of workers voted for union representation. Most of the elections (15,517) were triggered by employee petitions for representation, of which unions won 9,933. Less common were elections caused by employee petitions for decertification (2792, of which unions won 1070), and employer-filed petitions for either representation or decertification (268, of which unions won 85).[43][44]

text: Labor education programs[edit]

text: In the US, labor education programs such as the Harvard Trade Union Program [45] created in 1942 by Harvard University professor John Thomas Dunlop sought to educate union members to deal with important contemporary workplace and labor law issues of the day. The Harvard Trade Union Program is currently part of a broader initiative at Harvard Law School called the Labor and Worklife Program[46] that deals with a wide variety of labor and employment issues from union pension investment funds to the effects of nanotechnology on labor markets and the workplace.

text: Cornell University is known to be one of the leading centers for labor education in the world, establishing the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations in 1945. The school's mission is to prepare leaders, inform national and international employment and labor policy, and improve working lives through undergraduate and graduate education. The school publishes the Industrial and Labor Relations Review and had Frances Perkins on its faculty. The school has six academic departments: Economics, Human Resource Management, International and Comparative Labor, Labor Relations, Organizational Behavior, and Social Statistics. Classes include "Politics of the Global North" and "Economic Analysis of the University." [47][48]

text: Jurisdiction[edit]

text: Labor unions use the term jurisdiction to refer to their claims to represent workers who perform a certain type of work and the right of their members to perform such work. For example, the work of unloading containerized cargo at United States ports, which the International Longshoremen's Association, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters have claimed rightfully should be assigned to workers they represent. A jurisdictional strike is a concerted refusal to work undertaken by a union to assert its members' right to such job assignments and to protest the assignment of disputed work to members of another union or to unorganized workers. Jurisdictional strikes occur most frequently in the United States in the construction industry.[49]

text: Unions also use jurisdiction to refer to the geographical boundaries of their operations, as in those cases in which a national or international union allocates the right to represent workers among different local unions based on the place of those workers' employment, either along geographical lines or by adopting the boundaries between political jurisdictions.[49]

text: Public opinion[edit]

text: Although not as overwhelmingly supportive as it was from the 1930s through the early 1960s, a clear majority of the American public approves of labor unions. The Gallup organization has tracked public opinion of unions since 1936, when it found that 72 percent approved of unions. The overwhelming approval declined in the late 1960s, but - except for one poll in 2009 in which the unions received a favorable rating by only 48 percent of those interviewed, majorities have always supported labor unions. The latest poll in August 2016 gave labor unions a 56 percent approval rating, versus 36 percent who disapproved of unions.

text: On the question of whether or not unions should have more influence or less influence, Gallup has found the public consistently split since Gallup first posed the question in 2000, with no majority favoring either more influence or less influence. In August 2016, 36 percent wanted unions to have more influence, 34 percent less influence, with 26 percent wanting the influence of labor unions to remain about the same.[50]

text: Possible causes of drop in membership[edit]

text: Although most industrialized countries have seen a drop in unionization rates, the drop in union density (the unionized proportion of the working population) has been more significant in the United States than elsewhere.[11]

text: Global trends[edit]

text: The US Bureau of Labor Statistics surveyed the histories of union membership rates in industrialized countries from 1970 to 2003, and found that of 20 advanced economies which had union density statistics going back to 1970, 16 of them had experienced drops in union density from 1970 to 2003. Over the same period during which union density in the US declined from 23.5 percent to 12.4 percent, some counties saw even steeper drops. Australian unionization fell from 50.2 percent in 1970 to 22.9 percent in 2003, in New Zealand it dropped from 55.2 percent to 22.1 percent, and in Austria union participation fell from 62.8 percent down to 35.4 percent. All the English-speaking countries studied saw union membership decline to some degree. In the United Kingdom, union participation fell from 44.8 percent in 1970 to 29.3 percent in 2003. In Ireland the decline was from 53.7 percent down to 35.3 percent. Canada had one of the smallest declines over the period, going from 31.6 percent in 1970 to 28.4 percent in 2003. Most of the countries studied started in 1970 with higher participation rates than the US, but France, which in 1970 had a union participation rate of 21.7 percent, by 2003 had fallen to 8.3 percent. The remaining four countries which had gained in union density were Finland, Sweden, Denmark, and Belgium.[53]

text: Popularity[edit]

text: Public approval of unions climbed during the 1980s much as it did in other industrialized nations,[54] but declined to below 50% for the first time in 2009 during the Great Recession. It is not clear if this is a long term trend or a function of a high unemployment rate which historically correlates with lower public approval of labor unions.[55]

text: One explanation for loss of public support is simply the lack of union power or critical mass. No longer do a sizable percentage of American workers belong to unions, or have family members who do. Unions no longer carry the "threat effect": the power of unions to raise wages of non-union shops by virtue of the threat of unions to organize those shops.[55]

text: Polls of public opinion and labor unions[edit]

text: A New York Times/CBS Poll found that 60% of Americans opposed restricting collective bargaining while 33% were for it. The poll also found that 56% of Americans opposed reducing pay of public employees compared to the 37% who approved. The details of the poll also stated that 26% of those surveyed, thought pay and benefits for public employees were too high, 25% thought too low, and 36% thought about right. Mark Tapscott of the Washington Examiner criticized the poll, accusing it of over-sampling union and public employee households.[56]

text: A Gallup poll released on March 9, 2011, showed that Americans were more likely to support limiting the collective bargaining powers of state employee unions to balance a state's budget (49%) than disapprove of such a measure (45%), while 6% had no opinion. 66% of Republicans approved of such a measure as did 51% of independents. Only 31% of Democrats approved.[57]

text: A Gallup poll released on March 11, 2011, showed that nationwide, Americans were more likely to give unions a negative word or phrase when describing them (38%) than a positive word or phrase (34%). 17% were neutral and 12% didn't know. Republicans were much more likely to say a negative term (58%) than Democrats (19%). Democrats were much more likely to say a positive term (49%) than Republicans (18%).[58]

text: A nationwide Gallup poll (margin of error ±4%) released on April 1, 2011,[59] showed the following;

text:
When asked if they supported the labor unions or the governors in state disputes; 48% said they supported the unions, 39% said the governors, 4% said neither, and 9% had no opinion.
Women supported the governors much less than men. 45% of men said they supported the governors, while 46% said they supported the unions. This compares to only 33% of women who said they supported the governors and 50% who said they supported the unions.
All areas of the US (East, Midwest, South, West) were more likely to support unions than the governors. The largest gap being in the East with 35% supporting the governors and 52% supporting the unions, and the smallest gap being in the West with 41% supporting the governors and 44% the unions.
18- to 34-year-olds were much more likely to support unions than those over 34 years of age. Only 27% of 18- to 34-year-olds supported the governors, while 61% supported the unions. Americans ages 35 to 54 slightly supported the unions more than governors, with 40% supporting the governors and 43% the unions. Americans 55 and older were tied when asked, with 45% supporting the governors and 45% the unions.
Republicans were much more likely to support the governors when asked with 65% supporting the governors and 25% the unions. Independents slightly supported unions more, with 40% supporting the governors and 45% the unions. Democrats were overwhelmingly in support of the unions. 70% of Democrats supported the unions, while only 19% supported the governors.
Those who said they were following the situation not too closely or not at all supported the unions over governors, with a 14–point (45% to 31%) margin. Those who said they were following the situation somewhat closely supported the unions over governors by a 52–41 margin. Those who said that they were following the situation very closely were only slightly more likely to support the unions over the governors, with a 49-48 margin.

tag: ul

text: A nationwide Gallup poll released on August 31, 2011, revealed the following:[60]

text:
52% of Americans approved of labor unions, unchanged from 2010.
78% of Democrats approved of labor unions, up from 71% in 2010.
52% of Independents approved of labor unions, up from 49% in 2010.
26% of Republicans approved of labor unions, down from 34% in 2010.

text: A nationwide Gallup poll released on September 1, 2011, revealed the following:[61]

text:
55% of Americans believed that labor unions will become weaker in the United States as time goes by, an all-time high. This compared to 22% who said their power would stay the same, and 20% who said they would get stronger.
The majority of Republicans and Independents believed labor unions would further weaken by a 58% and 57% percentage margin respectively. A plurality of Democrats believed the same, at 46%.
42% of Americans want labor unions to have less influence, tied for the all-time high set in 2009. 30% wanted more influence and 25% wanted the same amount of influence.
The majority of Republicans wanted labor unions to have less influence, at 69%.
A plurality of Independents wanted labor unions to have less influence, at 40%.
A plurality of Democrats wanted labor unions to have more influence, at 45%.
The majority of Americans believed labor unions mostly helped members of unions by a 68 to 28 margin.
A plurality of Americans believed labor unions mostly helped the companies where workers are unionized by a 48-44 margin.
A plurality of Americans believed labor unions mostly helped state and local governments by a 47-45 margin.
A plurality of Americans believed labor unions mostly hurt the US economy in general by a 49-45 margin.
The majority of Americans believed labor unions mostly hurt workers who are not members of unions by a 56-34 margin.

text: Institutional environments[edit]

text: A broad range of forces have been identified as potential contributors to the drop in union density across countries. Sano and Williamson outline quantitative studies that assess the relevance of these factors across countries.[62] The first relevant set of factors relate to the receptiveness of unions' institutional environments. For example, the presence of a Ghent system (where unions are responsible for the distribution of unemployment insurance) and of centralized collective bargaining (organized at a national or industry level as opposed to local or firm level) have both been shown to give unions more bargaining power and to correlate positively to higher rates of union density.[62]

text: Unions have enjoyed higher rates of success in locations where they have greater access to the workplace as an organizing space (as determined both by law and by employer acceptance), and where they benefit from a corporatist relationship to the state and are thus allowed to participate more directly in the official governance structure. Moreover, the fluctuations of business cycles, particularly the rise and fall of unemployment rates and inflation, are also closely linked to changes in union density.[62]

text: Labor legislation[edit]

text: Labor lawyer Thomas Geoghegan attributes the drop to the long-term effects of the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act, which slowed and then halted labor's growth and then, over many decades, enabled management to roll back labor's previous gains.[63]

text: First, it ended organizing on the grand, 1930s scale. It outlawed mass picketing, secondary strikes of neutral employers, sit downs: in short, everything [Congress of Industrial Organizations founder John L.] Lewis did in the 1930s.

text:
The second effect of Taft-Hartley was subtler and slower-working. It was to hold up any new organizing at all, even on a quiet, low-key scale. For example, Taft-Hartley ended "card checks." … Taft-Hartley required hearings, campaign periods, secret-ballot elections, and sometimes more hearings, before a union could be officially recognized.

It also allowed and even encouraged employers to threaten workers who want to organize. Employers could hold "captive meetings," bring workers into the office and chew them out for thinking about the Union.

And Taft-Hartley led to the "union-busting" that started in the late 1960s and continues today. It started when a new "profession" of labor consultants began to convince employers that they could violate the [pro-labor 1935] Wagner Act, fire workers at will, fire them deliberately for exercising their legal rights, and nothing would happen. The Wagner Act had never had any real sanctions.
[…]

text: In general, scholars debate the influence of politics in determining union strength in the US and other countries. One argument is that political parties play an expected role in determining union strength, with left-wing governments generally promoting greater union density, while others contest this finding by pointing out important counterexamples and explaining the reverse causality inherent in this relationship.[64]

text: Economic globalization[edit]

text: More recently, as unions have become increasingly concerned with the impacts of market integration on their well-being, scholars have begun to assess whether popular concerns about a global "race to the bottom" are reflected in cross-country comparisons of union strength. These scholars use foreign direct investment (FDI) and the size of a country's international trade as a percentage of its GDP to assess a country's relative degree of market integration. These researchers typically find that globalization does affect union density, but is dependent on other factors, such as unions' access to the workplace and the centralization of bargaining.[65]

text: Sano and Williamson argue that globalization's impact is conditional upon a country's labor history.[66] In the United States in particular, which has traditionally had relatively low levels of union density, globalization did not appear to significantly affect union density.

text: Employer strategies[edit]

text: Studies focusing more narrowly on the U.S. labor movement corroborate the comparative findings about the importance of structural factors, but tend to emphasize the effects of changing labor markets due to globalization to a greater extent. Bronfenbrenner notes that changes in the economy, such as increased global competition, capital flight, and the transitions from a manufacturing to a service economy and to a greater reliance on transitory and contingent workers, accounts for only a third of the decline in union density.[68]

text: Bronfenbrenner claims that the federal government in the 1980s was largely responsible for giving employers the perception that they could engage in aggressive strategies to repress the formation of unions. Richard Freeman also points to the role of repressive employer strategies in reducing unionization, and highlights the way in which a state ideology of anti-unionism tacitly accepted these strategies [54]

text: Goldfield writes that the overall effects of globalization on unionization in the particular case of the United States may be understated in econometric studies on the subject.[69] He writes that the threat of production shifts reduces unions' bargaining power even if it does not eliminate them, and also claims that most of the effects of globalization on labor's strength are indirect. They are most present in change towards a neoliberal political context that has promoted the deregulation and privatization of some industries and accepted increased employer flexibility in labor markets.

text: Union responses to globalization[edit]

text: Regardless of the actual impact of market integration on union density or on workers themselves, organized labor has been engaged in a variety of strategies to limit the agenda of globalization and to promote labor regulations in an international context. The most prominent example of this has been the opposition of labor groups to free trade initiatives such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA). In both cases, unions expressed strong opposition to the agreements, but to some extent pushed for the incorporation of basic labor standards in the agreement if one were to pass.[71]

text: However, Mayer has written that it was precisely unions' opposition to NAFTA overall that jeopardized organized labor's ability to influence the debate on labor standards in a significant way.[72] During Clinton's presidential campaign, labor unions wanted NAFTA to include a side deal to provide for a kind of international social charter, a set of standards that would be enforceable both in domestic courts and through international institutions. Mickey Kantor, then U.S. trade representative, had strong ties to organized labor and believed that he could get unions to come along with the agreement, particularly if they were given a strong voice in the negotiation process.[72]

text: When it became clear that Mexico would not stand for this kind of an agreement, some critics from the labor movement would not settle for any viable alternatives. In response, part of the labor movement wanted to declare their open opposition to the agreement, and to push for NAFTA's rejection in Congress.[72] Ultimately, the ambivalence of labor groups led those within the Administration who supported NAFTA to believe that strengthening NAFTA's labor side agreement too much would cost more votes among Republicans than it would garner among Democrats, and would make it harder for the United States to elicit support from Mexico.[73]

text: Graubart writes that, despite unions' open disappointment with the outcome of this labor-side negotiation, labor activists, including the AFL-CIO have used the side agreement's citizen petition process to highlight ongoing political campaigns and struggles in their home countries.[74] He claims that despite the relative weakness of the legal provisions themselves, the side-agreement has served a legitimizing functioning, giving certain social struggles a new kind of standing.

text: Transnational labor regulation[edit]

text: Unions have recently been engaged in a developing field of transnational labor regulation embodied in corporate codes of conduct. However, O'Brien cautions that unions have been only peripherally involved in this process, and remain ambivalent about its potential effects.[75] They worry that these codes could have legitimizing effects on companies that do not actually live up to good practices, and that companies could use codes to excuse or distract attention from the repression of unions.

text: Braun and Gearhart note that although unions do participate in the structure of a number of these agreements, their original interest in codes of conduct differed from the interests of human rights and other non-governmental activists. Unions believed that codes of conduct would be important first steps in creating written principles that a company would be compelled to comply with in later organizing contracts, but did not foresee the establishment of monitoring systems such as the Fair Labor Association. These authors point out that are motivated by power, want to gain insider status politically and are accountable to a constituency that requires them to provide them with direct benefits.[76]

text: In contrast, activists from the non-governmental sector are motivated by ideals, are free of accountability and gain legitimacy from being political outsiders. Therefore, the interests of unions are not likely to align well with the interests of those who draft and monitor corporate codes of conduct.

text: Arguing against the idea that high union wages necessarily make manufacturing uncompetitive in a globalized economy is labor lawyer Thomas Geoghegan. Busting

text: unions, in the U.S. manner, as the prime way of competing with China and other countries [does not work]. It's no accident that the social democracies, Sweden, France, and Germany, which kept on paying high wages, now have more industry than the U.S. or the UK. … [T]hat's what the U.S. and the UK did: they smashed the unions, in the belief that they had to compete on cost. The result? They quickly ended up wrecking their industrial base.[77]

text: Unions have made some attempts to organize across borders. Eder observes that transnational organizing is not a new phenomenon but has been facilitated by technological change.[78] Nevertheless, he claims that while unions pay lip service to global solidarity, they still act largely in their national self-interest. He argues that unions in the global North are becoming increasingly depoliticized while those in the South grow politically, and that global differentiation of production processes leads to divergent strategies and interests in different regions of the world. These structural differences tend to hinder effective global solidarity. However, in light of the weakness of international labor, Herod writes that globalization of production need not be met by a globalization of union strategies in order to be contained. Herod also points out that local strategies, such as the United Auto Workers' strike against General Motors in 1998, can sometimes effectively interrupt global production processes in ways that they could not before the advent of widespread market integration. Thus, workers need not be connected organizationally to others around the world to effectively influence the behavior of a transnational corporation.[79]