Union Membership declines in USA both in private and govt sectors

Ateneo Professor on Entrepreneurship

From Foxnews/AP | January 23, 2013

Are US unions losing their clout?  They are supposed to create and protect jobs, arent they?

The US Labor statistics recently release statistics, showing the union membership decline from 11.8 to 11.3% the lowest since l930.  This amounts to about 400,000,  to only l4.4 million, with more than half coming from the public sector:  teachers, firefighters, public administrators.  The decline comes from job losses due to cash strapped local government units.

There are also trouble for union for private sector, where membership fell from 6.9% to only 6.6%;  although there was slight growth, growth came from non unionized firms.

In l950s,  1 out of three workers in USA was a union member.  By l983, it was mere l in 5.

Some laws affected union membership.  One was the signing of law in Wisconsin which prohibited union membership for govt workers.  In Indiana there is right to work law which prohibits collection dues from employees even if they benefit from a collective bargaining agreement.

In the face of bad economy, is there a future for unions?