Union Membership Nearly Flat in 2011

(The Wall Street Journal) - The percentage of Americans who belong to a union stayed nearly flat in 2011, contrasting with sharper declines in recent years.

Labor experts said the figures reflected a slightly improving economy and rehiring in unionized workplaces, rather than success in union organizing campaigns.

The number of union members rose to 14.8 million in 2011 from 14.7 million a year earlier, thanks to an increase in union members at private-sector employers, where unions had struggled to add members in recent years.

The percentage of workers who belong to a union inched down to 11.8 percent from 11.9 percent in 2010, a decline the Bureau of Labor Statistics said left the rate "essentially unchanged."

The plateau comes amid a wave of efforts in states and Congress to chip away at union benefits and discourage workers from belonging to unions. A Republican-sponsored Senate bill would require union members to vote every three years on whether they want to retain union representation in the workplace.

Congressional Republicans and business groups are trying to block a new federal regulation that would speed union-organizing elections. Last year, Wisconsin stripped public sector union members of many collective-bargaining rights.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said the slight uptick in the number of private sector members showed that good union jobs are beginning to come back. "Despite an unprecedented volley of partisan political attacks on workers' rights, and the continuing insecurity of our economic crisis, union membership increased slightly last year," he said.

Randy Johnson, the US Chamber of Commerce's senior vice president of labor, sees it differently. "The fact that there's been some growth is a good sign that the economy is rebuilding a bit but has nothing to do with the unions or their appeal to workers," he said.

The last time union membership rates rose was in 2008 when they increased to 12.4 percent from 12.1 percent a year earlier. But that increase was not enough to reverse a declining trend over the last three decades, from a membership rate of 20.1 percent in 1983.

Read more: The Wall Street Journal