In 2017, Texas Union Membership Rose at the Highest Rate in Over Three Decades
Even as union membership flatlined nationally in 2017, something surprising happened in the Lone Star State. Texas had its biggest surge in union membership since 1983, the first year that the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) began collecting state union data.
According to the BLS, Texas union membership grew by 80,579 people in 2017. Union density, the ratio of union members to the total workforce, grew modestly from 4 percent to 4.7 percent – the biggest jump since 1993.
The union boomlet corresponds with economic growth and shifting political affiliations in Texas cities. In progressive cities such as El Paso, elected officials have helped public-sector labor organizers put down roots. And in some conservative, rural parts of the state, private-sector unions have been able to attract members with apprenticeship programs that guarantee higher wages.
Other red states are also seeing measurable union growth. Over the last year, union membership density grew in other southern right-to-work states such as Virginia, Arkansas, Georgia and Louisiana.
Read more: https://www.texasobserver.org/in-2017-texas-union-membership-rose-at-the-highest-rate-in-over-three-decades/
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Thanks for posting it. I need to have more hope and this helps. 