Unionization Rates Rise in United States

Unionization rates in the United States rose a half a percentage point over 2007, to 12.6 percent of all workers in 2008, reversing a decades-long trend of decline, according to a report released on Sunday.

The rate rose one-tenth of a percentage point between 2006 and 2007. Before that, the last time unionization rates rose in the United States was 1979, according to the report by the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA).

This is good news for organized labor, said Ruth Milkman, lead author of the report and outgoing director of the UCLA labor institute. It shows that despite an extremely hostile environment, unions can grow.

According to the report, in the first half of 2008, the number of unionized workers increased by 583,300 over the 2007 average.

Fueling the nationwide increase was the recent growth in unionization in California, which currently accounts for 16 percent of all the nation's union members, more than any other state. California's unionization rate this year is 17.8 percent, up from 16.7 percent in 2007 and 15.7 percent in 2006.

Nearly half of California's 2.6 million union members, or 1.2 million workers, live in the Los Angeles metro area, according to the study.

Despite being perceived as anti-union, Los Angeles and its surrounding metro area have recently seen increases in unionization rates, which rose to 17 percent in 2008 from 15.9 percent in 2007 and 15.2 percent in 2006.

In a very real way, Los Angeles and California continue to serve as strong growth engines for organized labor nationally, said Milkman, a UCLA professor of sociology. The labor movement here is in much better shape than in much of the rest of the country. If this year's nationwide increase proves to be a lasting trend, historians will look back and see the leading edge of that growth here in the West.

According to the report, average hourly earnings are about 2.50 higher U.S. dollars for union members than for nonunion workers in the United States. Union members also are far more likely to have access to benefits like retirement plans, medical insurance and paid leave than their nonunion counterparts. 

 

Source: CRIEnglish