US Labor Union Decline

US Union membership peaked at 35% in the 1950s and began to decline after 1960. The current decline in union membership from 20% in 1983 to 10% in 2019 reflects the fact that private sector union membership decreased and public sector union membership increased.

It is not likely that US manufacturing workers will opt to unionize in the 2020s.  The surge in US electronics manufacturing in the 1980s produced large non-union manufacturing companies and unions offered little to attract these workers.

Unions need reinvent themselves or be resigned to decline further as we go forward.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader