YOUR WORLD IN CHARTS: UNIONS MATTER EDITION.

YOUR WORLD IN CHARTS: UNIONS MATTER EDITION.

Nathan Newman is optimistic about the labor movement's future. "Not that all unions have the long-term vision needed," he writes, "but there's been an almost Darwinian evolution in the union movement. Those unions without long-term vision have shrunk and those with long-term vision have grown and become more and more dominant." Indeed, the data seems to show a couple different labor movements whose fortunes are actually going in different directions. if what you're interested in is the labor movement in the service sector, or among immigrants, or in the Southwest, they're doing incredibly well, and under incredible adverse circumstances. The Justice for Janitors was as remarkable an organizing venture as we've seen in this country. Conversely, if you're looking at manufacturing unions, or old line institutions in the Midwest, they're doing quite poorly, as the economic forces buffeting the industry are simply bigger than they are. To some, that means the death of the labor movement, as conservatives often assure me that unions only exist to extract value for their members, and you can't extract vaue from service sector jobs in the way you can for machinist positions. So I grabbed some earnings data and looking into whether or not that's true. Short answer: It isn't:



Turns out it's plenty worthwhile to be in a union. If you're a machine operator, the union difference is 39% of your wages. That's the same as it is in the transportation industry, and less than it is for manual laborers. For the service sector in general, joining a union is equivalent to a 27 percent bump in wages. It's all pretty significant, and it's being reflected in the success that unions like UNITE-HERE and SEIU are experiencing.

Posted by Ezra Klein on February 22, 2008 3:13 PM | Permalink
http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/ezraklein_archive?month=02&year=2008&base_name=your_world_in_charts_unions_ma

Great post.