Health & Fitness
Union Membership In Decline Due To Austerity Cuts, Not Members Leaving
Everyone has an opinion as to why American Union membership is down. The truth is membership fell in public sector unions, and rose in many private sector unions.
Yesterday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released a new report that shows that union membership slipped slightly over the last year. The report show that overall union membership went from 11.8 percent of the workforce to 11.3 percent.
I am sure that right-wing pundits are going to continue to say that this decline shows that people do not want union representation anymore. I would beg to differ. The fact of the matter is America is adding jobs and growing our economy. The problem is that many of these jobs are not eligible for union representation, or are struggling to gain representation.
“Throughout most of the recession union membership in Oregon grew as more workers realized the importance of having a voice at work. But we knew that eventually the job losses would translate to lower membership numbers, and that appears to have caught up with us this year,” said Oregon AFL-CIO President Tom Chamberlain.
