WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation's labor unions suffered
sharp declines in membership last year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics
said Wednesday, led by losses in the public sector as cash-strapped
state and local governments laid off workers and — in some cases —
limited collective bargaining rights.
The union membership rate fell from 11.8 percent to 11.3 percent of all workers, the lowest level since the 1930s.
Total
membership fell by about 400,000 workers to 14.4 million. More than
half the loss — about 234,000 — came from government workers including
teachers, firefighters and public administrators.
The losses add
another blow to a labor movement already stretched thin by fighting
efforts in Wisconsin, Indiana and Michigan to curb
bargaining rights and weaken union clout.
But unions also saw
losses in the private sector, even as the economy expanded modestly.
That rate fell of membership fell from 6.9 percent to 6.6 percent, a
troubling sign for the future of organized labor, as job growth has
generally taken place at nonunion employers.
"To employers, it's going
to look like the labor movement is ready for a knockout punch," said
Gary Chaison, professor of industrial relations at Clark University in
Worcester, Mass. "You can't be a movement and get smaller."
Unions
have steadily lost members since their peak in the 1950s, when about
one of every three workers was in a union. By 1983, roughly 20 percent
of American workers were union members.
Losses in the public
sector are hitting unions particularly hard since that has been one of
the few areas where membership was growing over the past two decades.
About 51 percent of union members work in government, where until
recently, there had been little resistance to union organizing.
That
began to change when Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker signed a law in 2011
eliminating most union rights for government workers. The state lost
about 46,000 union members last year, mostly in the public sector.
Union
officials blame losses on the lingering effects of the recession, as
well as GOP governors and state lawmakers who have sought to weaken
union rights.
"Our still-struggling economy, weak laws and
political as well as ideological assaults have taken a toll on union
membership, and in the process have also imperiled economic security and
good, middle class jobs," said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka.
In
Indiana, where a new right-to-work law took effect last March, the
state lost about 56,000 union members. The law prohibits unions from
requiring workers to pay union fees, even if they benefit from a
collective bargaining agreement. Michigan lawmakers approved a similar
measure in December.
Another problem for unions is an aging
membership that is not being replaced by younger members. By age, the
union membership rate was highest among workers ages 55 to 64 (14.9
percent) and lowest among those ages 16 to 24 (4.2 percent).
In
New York, the state with the highest union density, nearly one-quarter
of the workforce belonged to a union. North Carolina had the lowest at
2.9 percent.
Among full-time wage and salary workers, union
members in 2012 had median weekly earnings of $943, while those who were
not union members earned $742.
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