A Bad Year for Unions

It hasn’t been a good year for American organized labor. Last week, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its annual estimate of union membership in the United States. An accompanying graphic summarizes the major trends, drawing on the work of Barry Hirsch and David Macpherson (www.unionstats.com) and John Schmitt, Janelle Jones, and Milla Sanes at the Center for Economic and Policy Research (who offer further breakdowns by state and sector). The trends include: We see no break in the unrelenting decline in union power and presence; We see wide variations across states; We are beginning to see the combined effects of recent attacks on public sector unions and austerity budgets