Union Membership Grew in 2011, But Remains at Historic Low
Despite ongoing government cutbacks and a series of threats from states seeking to limit collective bargaining rights, the latest data shows that gains in the private sector helped overall union membership to increase slightly last year to 14.8 million. While that number is “essentially unchanged” from 2010, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, it indicates that declining union participation may have finally bottomed out—for now.
While the addition of 110,000 new union workers in the private sector—primarily in health care and construction—helped to offset the loss of about 61,000 government employees, the overall percentage of unionized workers remains, at 11.8 percent, the lowest since the Great Depression. Interestingly, that’s something of a reversal from the trend the last thirty years: public sector union membership was growing steadily until the financial crisis of 2008, even as private sector unions all but disappeared with the offshoring of American manufacturing.
It is a precarious moment for the labor movement. If, as labor leaders hope, we have indeed hit the bottom for private sector unionization, we may see unions begin to rebuild as the economy recovers. But in the face of continuing budget shortfalls, the future for the public sector remains uncertain. “We may have reached a level where the union numbers simply can’t decline anymore,” says Gary Chaison, a labor professor at Clark University. “But if you’re not expanding, how can you call yourself a movement?”
