Union Representation In , The percentage of workers represented by a union was Workers represented by a union include both union members In addition to coverage by a collective bargaining agreement, these earnings differences reflect a variety of influences, including variations in the distributions of union members and nonunion employees by occupation, industry, age, firm size, or geographic region, as well as pandemic-related labor market effects in See tables 2 and 4.
Union Membership by State In , 30 states and the District of Columbia had union membership rates below that of the U. All states in both the East South Central and West South Central divisions had union membership rates below the national average, while all states in both the Middle Atlantic and Pacific divisions had rates above it. Nine states had union membership rates below 5.
South Carolina had the lowest rate 2. The next lowest rates were in North Carolina and Utah 3. Two states had union membership rates over Over half of the These movements buck a decades-long trend of union enrollment decline. Bureau of Labor Statistics data indicates that in , By , that share had decreased by roughly half to But in , that share ticked up slightly to Even as the share of employed Americans who were represented by a union declined, union wages remained solid. In recent years, the federal government has deregulated heavily unionized industries including the trucking, railroad, and airline industries.
Deregulation has brought greater competition in this industries not only domestically but also from abroad. No longer is the U. Economic globalization has resulted in large-scale layoffs and growing economic insecurity for workers, particularly in these historically unionized industries. This in turn has limited union efforts to raise their members' wages and benefits. For example, trucking deregulation hit the Teamsters union hard because competition meant that trucking firms could no longer keep their prices high enough to support the Teamsters' wage premiums.
The new competitive labor market freed nonunion truckers from the roadblocks they faced in getting jobs. Unemployment skyrocketed, reaching Layoffs were common— In the face of such instability, companies found that workers in the manufacturing sector were both more willing to accept lower wages than they might have previously been, and more receptive to warnings that unionization campaigns could jeopardize their job security.
Meanwhile, popular sentiment in the country around economic policy was shifting. In the face of wage stagnation, Americans started to demand lower taxes, and resentment for public-sector workers grew.
Politicians of both parties threw their support behind deregulation and free market reforms, arguing that only the forces of the free market could end stagflation and unleash the kind of innovation needed to improve living standards for all. There have, over the years, been legislative efforts to restore unions to a measure of their former glory. In , labor groups mounted an effort to repeal the section of the Taft-Hartley Act that allowed state-level right-to-work laws, with the support of President Lyndon B.
It was successfully filibustered in the Senate. In , another effort to reform labor law and institutions was also successfully filibustered. Likewise, a effort to pass legislation blocking employers from hiring permanent replacements for striking workers also died in the Senate. In an article in The American Prospect published in , Harold Myerson argued that even President Barack Obama widely viewed as the most labor-friendly president in years abandoned the labor movement by not fighting hard enough for the Employee Free Choice Act in , which would have made it easier for workers to form unions and increased fines on employers who violate labor law.
These failures highlight another difference between European and American unions. In many of the Western European countries where unions have maintained their strength, the relationship between organized labor and political parties takes two forms: unions either enjoy broad-based support from politicians across the political spectrum, or they have an extremely close relationship with one political party that consistently advances their priorities.
Consider, for example, the experience of Germany as compared to that of the U. And that means that whenever the Republicans get in power, they do everything possible to weaken the unions.
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