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

[Omaha Steve]

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