January 26, 2017

Union membership hits new low

What is seldom considered is how important labor unions once were to the strength of the Democratic Party and keeping it focused  issues  that in recent years the party has let fall by the wayside, building room for someone like Trump. 

The Hill - Fewer American workers belong to labor unions than at any time since the government began tracking membership, according to a new report released Thursday.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics said just 10.7 percent of American workers were members of labor unions in 2016, down from 11.1 percent the previous year, and down from 20.1 percent in 1983, the first year the bureau collected union statistics. The number of union workers dropped almost every year during the Obama administration.

In 27 states, fewer than one in 10 workers are union members. Just 1.6 percent of South Carolina workers are members of labor unions.

On the other end of the spectrum, nearly a quarter of New Yorkers are members of a union, and almost 20 percent of those employed in Hawaii pay union dues.

More than half of the 14.6 million union workers in the nation live in just seven states — California, New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Michigan, New Jersey and Ohio.

The long-term decline in union membership comes as the American manufacturing industry has fallen precipitously. The automotive industry alone, once the bedrock of the labor movement, now employs far fewer people than it did during its heyday.

Federal labor laws, first written after the Great Depression and seldom updated thanks to political gridlock, have hurt the union movement, McCartin said.

“We have a labor law that’s 80 years old, that was created for a different economy than the one we have now,” McCartin said. “As the economy changed and the law remained the same, it became increasingly difficult for unions to organize successfully.”

The long-term trend of declining union membership has been accelerated in some states, where Republican-led legislatures have passed so-called right-to-work laws that allow employees to opt out of paying union dues. Twenty-seven states have right-to-work laws on the books, after Kentucky passed a version earlier this year. Two more states, Missouri and New Hampshire, are moving to implement right-to-work laws in current legislative sessions.

Some companies that once employed thousands of union workers are opting to locate new production and manufacturing facilities in right-to-work states. Boeing, which employs tens of thousands of union workers in Washington, opened a new assembly line that builds its 787 aircraft in South Carolina, a right-to-work state, in 2011.

In recent years, Republicans in such states as Wisconsin and Ohio have targeted public employee unions, one of the last remaining bastions of strong labor participation. Just more than 40 percent of local government employees are members of unions, the BLS reported, the highest rate of any industry segment.

After Republican gains in November’s elections, public sector unions in other states are likely to face new political pressures. In Iowa, Gov. Terry Branstad (R) has proposed ending public employee unions’ ability to bargain over healthcare coverage. Kentucky legislators rolled back prevailing wage laws for public works projects, and Missouri Republicans are considering a similar bill.

“There’s a pretty unified hostility to public sector unionism by Republicans nationally and in many states,” McCartin said. He added that the Trump administration’s freeze on hiring federal workers will hasten labor losses, as government workers who are members of unions retire or find other jobs.

Older workers are most likely to be members of unions, while new entrants into the work force are least likely. Just over 14 percent of workers between the ages of 55 and 64 are union members, while just under 10 percent of those between 25 and 34 belong to unions.

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The Democrats refused to defend the Fairness Doctrine, they allowed it to be trashed by Reagan and never made any efforts to reinstate it. Worse, William Jefferson Clinton's Telecommunications Act of 1996 allowed for the obscene consolidation of media. What;s this all mean? It allowed the near nonstop polemics of the Rightwing Noise Machine to vilify and malign unions. The assault of disinformation and misinformation was relentless with the result being a successful propaganda campaign that managed to convince the once working classes to vote against their own best interests. Of course, as far as voting goes, did they ever really have any choices? For all of the damage rendered by Republicans, the Democrats kept right in step and managed to pull off the most destructive hits on labor with their efforts to pass GATT, WTO, and NAFTA. And nothing much has changed, just consider Barry's push to ram through TPP/TTIP/TISA.
It's great that you talk about Republican attacks on labor, but be fair Sam, for labor has no real ally with the Democrats, either. Enough of your DNC bull shit---get back to reporting and write something about the parties and efforts of those really working to defend the cause.