Union Membership, and Power, Slip Further in Great Recession

[marmar]

from In These Times:



Union Membership, and Power, Slip Further in Great Recession

Tuesday
Jan 25, 2011
10:11 am

By David Moberg


The grim news that labor union membership dropped again last year reflects the declining power of the labor movement, its fragility exacerbated by the great recession. And that weakness undermines progressive political influence, thus making it harder to change public policy to strengthen workers’ rights and freedom of association.

Here are the latest numbers on this downward spiral: The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that union membership dropped last year by about 600,000, reducing the share of wage and salary workers who are union members from 12.3 percent to 11.9 percent. More than half of union members are public employees, whose unionization rate slipped slightly to 36.2 percent. Only 6.9 percent of private-sector workers now belong to unions, down from 7.2 percent.

Although figures collected before and after 1983 are not precisely comparable, union membership had not been below 13 percent of the total labor force since 1936, as the big union organizing explosion of the New Deal era ignited. With unemployment remaining high and ascendant right-wing Republicans—joined by far too many Democrats—now attacking organized labor’s main strongholds among public employees, the prospects are not bright for 2011 either.

But while workers and unions will not be able to count on much of the political help they need in the near-term, except for some incremental improvements from the National Labor Relations Board, they can still use their remaining power to disrupt business as usual. And they can strengthen their alliances with such constituencies as environmentalists, immigrant rights advocates, and the religious community. That’s needed for both immediate defense as well as laying the groundwork for larger-scale organizing, like what the United Auto Workers (UAW) union recently announced for foreign-owned auto plants. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/6887/union_membership_power_slip_further_in_great_recession/

[mdmc]

1. does it ever turn from a great recession to a great depression?

or are we forever done with "depression" like economies?

[RKP5637]

2. Over time more and more people will succumb to less and less and that will

be the new norm from which to gage a recession or depression, but in the big picture people will be so dumbed down they will think it's just peachy. I'm constantly amazed at the lack of will of Americans to fight for their rights. Union membership to me is a no brainier.