The Supreme Court made
union dues optional by 5 to 4 in 23 Non-Right-To-Work States. There were
already 28 States that had passed Right-To-Work laws.
Under right-to-work laws,
states have the authority to determine whether workers can be required to join a labor union to get or keep a job.
Union membership dropped
after 1983 in the private sector, but was partially made up by the public
sector.
The number of employed union members has
declined by 2.9 million since 1983. During the same time, the number of all
wage and salary workers grew from 88.3 million to 133.7 million. Consequently,
the union membership rate was 20.1 percent in 1983 and declined to 11.1 percent
in 2015. In 2009, there was a sharp decline in the number of workers overall
and in the number of union members. The number of wage and salary workers
declined by 4.9 million from 2008 to 2009, and the number of employed union
members fell by 771,000. However, the union membership rate was 12.3 percent in
2009, essentially unchanged from 12.4 percent in 2008.
Number of union members about evenly
split between the private and public sector in 2015. Through the years, there
has been a long term decline in the number of union members in the private
sector. In 2015, there were 7.6 million union members in the private sector,
4.4 million fewer than in 1983. Public-sector union membership, however, has
remained fairly constant over time; in 2015, there were 7.2 million
public-sector union members, 1.5 million more than in 1983.
Union membership rate highest in local
government In 2015, public-sector workers had a union membership rate of 35.2
percent, more than five times higher than that of private-sector workers (6.7
percent). While the unionization rate for the public sector has remained
relatively steady over time, the rate for the private sector has declined from
16.8 percent in 1983 to 6.7 percent in 2015.
Within the public sector, local
government had the highest union membership rate at 41.3 percent in 2015,
followed by state government at 30.2 percent and federal government at 27.3
percent. Local government has a large number of union members working in highly
unionized occupations such as teachers, police officers, and firefighters.
Industries with large numbers of union
members experienced declining rates too In the private sector, five industries
accounted for 81 percent of union members in 2015.
Of these industries, private education
and health services had the largest number of union members at 1.9 million;
this includes a large number of union members who work in private hospitals,
like nurses, and private school employees (public schools and hospitals are
excluded).
Manufacturing (1.4 million),
transportation and utilities (1.1 million), construction (940,000), and
wholesale and retail trade (871,000) also had relatively large numbers of union
members in 2015. For comparison, the sixth largest industry, leisure and
hospitality had 389,000 union members.
Transportation, which has a relatively
high union membership rate, declined by 6.7 percentage points from 2000 to
2015. Union membership rates in construction, manufacturing, and wholesale and
retail trade also declined. In contrast, the unionization rate in education and
health services edged up by 0.8 percentage point. Industry data on a comparable
basis are available back to 2000.
New York had highest union membership
rate, South Carolina lowest, in 2015 Thirty states and the District of Columbia
had union membership rates below that of the U.S. average, 11.1 percent, and 20
states had rates above it. In 2015, New York continued to have the highest
union membership rate at 24.7 percent; Hawaii was the only other state to have
a union membership rate above 20 percent in 2015, at 20.4 percent. Five states
had union membership rates below 5.0 percent in 2015, with South Carolina
having the lowest rate (2.1 percent). The next lowest rates were in North
Carolina (3.0 percent) and Utah (3.9 percent).
Right-To-Work Laws - Currently,
28 states and Guam have given workers a choice when it comes to union
membership. Labor unions still operate in those states, but workers cannot be
compelled to become members as a requirement of their job. Kentucky became the
27th right-to-work state when it enacted HB 1 on Jan. 9, 2017. Missouri became
the 28th by enacting SB 19 on Feb. 2, 2017.
Right-to-Work
States are: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana,
Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska,
Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota,
Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Wisconsin, West Virginia and Wyoming.
The 23
Non-Right to Work (Forced Unionism) states are: Alaska, California, Colorado, Connecticut,
Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan,
Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey. New Mexico. New York, Ohio,
Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody
GA Tea Party Leader
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