US trade union membership at lowest level in more than a century

[Hannah Bell]

US trade union membership at lowest level in more than a century
By Jerry White
3 February 2010
Union membership in the United States fell another 10 percent in 2009, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, with the number of workers belonging to unions falling 771,000 to 15.3 million. Overall, the percentage of union members continued to fall to 12.3 percent, from 12.4 percent in 2008.


The decline was in large part due to the loss of hundreds of thousands of manufacturing and construction jobs last year due to the economic recession. This is, however, part of a decades-long trend, which has seen the percentage of private sector workers in unions fall to 7.2 percent last year, the lowest level since 1901.

Private sector unionization peaked at 30 percent in 1958, and was still 20.8 percent as late as 1980.

For the first time in history, the number of unionized workers in the public sector surpassed the number of private sector workers in unions. According to government statistics, 7.9 million public sector employees belonged to a union compared to 7.4 million private sector employees. This is despite the fact that there are five times more wage and salary workers in the private sector.

More than 37 percent of government employees belonged to unions in 2009, up 0.6 percentage points from 2008. While private-sector unions lost 834,000 members in 2009, public-sector unions actually gained 64,000 members.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/feb2010/unio-f03.shtml

[gateley]

1. I long for the day when the unions regain their strength. nt

[ProgressiveProfessor]

2. It will never be the same again...the workforce and workplace have changed

Heavy manufacturing done by large companies is declining and will never return. That is a mixed blessing, but one of the results is that some kinds of jobs are gone forever.

Service workers and professionals are the new union area and the SEIU is growing.

[amborin]

3. all the foreign car manufacturers have plants in the US

they've used union-busting tactics forever...but they are still there to organize

[classysassy]

4. With the help of the republican party

the powerful rich corporations set out to destroy the unions in this country,cheap labor mean larger profits for the already filthy rich.

[mmonk]

5. As America shifts into corporate dictatorship

and there is no political party or power to speak for labor in this country, it will only get worse unless people in general start to organize and push back. Organizing now can't just be tied into specific industries anymore, especially now that corporate money is "free speech".

[troubledamerican]

6. No unions = no middle class = no democracy = no General Strike capacity = military coup

And cue the COINTELPRO "tinfoil" chorus

[Edweird]

7. There isn't any work. You cannot enter an apprenticeship without jobs.

Get the jobs rolling with a new deal program and use union labor and that will change in an instant.