Union Membership on the Rise (largest single-year increase since 1979)

Source: AFL-CIO News Blog

by James Parks, Jan 25, 2008

The percentage of workers who belong to unions increased last year, according to the annual union membership report released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Some 311,000 new members joined unions in 2007, the largest single-year increase since 1979. Overall, the rate of union membership increased slightly to 12.1 percent last year, from 12 percent in 2006, reversing a trend of decline in recent years.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney says:

Today’s numbers show working people are pushing to form and join unions in order to improve their lives, despite record levels of resistance from employers. They know that a union card is the single best ticket into the middle class, especially in today’s economy.

The largest increase in union membership was in health services, where unions added 142,000 members, a 0.9 percent increase from 2006 to 7.9 percent.

In the private sector, union membership grew by 133,000, and union density grew to 7.5 percent in 2007, the first time private-sector density grew since 1979. In construction alone, more than 96,000 members were added last year, bumping the union membership rate in that industry to 13.9 percent, up from 13 percent in 2006.



Read more: http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/01/25/union-membership-on-the-rise/

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Click here to read a summary of the BLS report: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.nr0.htm

anytime a worker is oppressed there is a union

What's the saying about "those who try to rewrite history..." ;-)

Solidarity!

This means the people are starting to question the Repug lies about Unions and the economy.

(Stop by the Labor Forum sometime) :-)

I'll do that :toast:

its not ok for workers to join a union to collectively bargain for their economic interests, but it's ok for him or her to join a political union (the Republican party) to collectively bargain for their political interests.

Now we need some people in the NLRB to fight for the workers.

I would love Edwards as labor secretary. Can you imagine?

:D

Good news!

I hope the trend continues.

The news is indeed good but unless the numbers rise in other skilled fields then we have won nothing. I don't want to hear about rising numbers among janitors and pillow fluffers only, I want to hear about rising numbers among IT workers and mechanics, construction and logistical workers and of course the classical trades. These jobs are where the real money could be made and these are the most underpaid non union workers in the Nation.

Sorry to contradict you with such vehemence, but it doesn't matter WHAT your occupation is, you are better off being represented by a union.

I dunno how much you know about OPEIU, SEIU, and AFSCME, but they have made a very real push to organize workers in places where there has traditionally been very little representation for workers. A lot of ties those workers are underpaid and voiceless which means a united voice is particularly important for their wellbeing. Union membership in a workplace like those can make a huge difference in time like these.

You might enjoy reading the article cited in the OP because it does report a gain in membership in the construction trades--which appear to be the occupational areas you are most interested in. With the loss of manufacturing jobs in the country, it has been extremely difficult to post any significant gains in these trades, and this amount of GAIN is a huge victory for those workers.

Regards!


Laura

tried to break us.

For this trend to be sustained, we'll need *unions that fight*. Union workers *are the union* -- not its clients -- and should be treated as such. That means union democracy. That means decent contracts. That means no more corrupt, turncoast, overpaid union bureaucrats.

Kim Moody's new book, U.S. Labor in Trouble and Transition, is highly recommended.

:kick: