Union Membership in Illinois at 19-year low

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.wbbm780.com/pages/1876711.php?

Posted: Monday, 24 March 2008 9:36AM

CHICAGO -- Union membership in Illinois is the lowest it has been in at least 19 years, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.
According to a release Monday from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2007, 14.5 percent of wage and salary workers in Illinois were union members, down from 16.4 percent in 2006. Regional Commissioner Jay A. Mousa noted that the state’s 2007 union membership rate was the lowest recorded in the 19 years this data has been compiled. At its peak in 1993, 21.0 percent of all workers in Illinois belonged to a union.

Nationally, union members accounted for 12.1 percent of employed wage and salary workers in 2007, essentially unchanged from 12.0 percent in 2006, the release said. The union membership rate for the U.S. has declined from a high of 20.1 percent in 1983, the first year for which comparable national union data were available. Illinois was one of 20 states that had union membership rates above the U.S. average in 2007.

In Illinois, 842,000 wage and salary workers were union members in 2007, the release said. An additional 42,000 workers were represented by a union on their main job or were covered by an employee association or contract while not being union members themselves.
Nationwide, nearly 15.7 million wage and salary workers were union members in 2007, while another 1.6 million were represented by a union on their main job but not union members themselves, according to the Department of Labor.