Union membership grew nationally in 2011

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka meets with Columbia University Students in Cleveland last November in fight against ballot measure. (Mark Duncan/AP / November 7, 2011)

By Marc Lifsher

January 27, 2012, 12:37 p.m.

U.S. labor unions picked up 49,000 new members in 2011.

Young people between 16 and 24 years old accounted for almost a third of the new jobs, the country's biggest labor federation, the AFL-CIO, reported Friday.

"Good union jobs are beginning to come back," said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, "despite an unprecedented volley of partisan political attacks on workers' rights and the continuing insecurity of our economic crisis."

Overall, unions gained 110,000 new jobs in the private sector last year. Part of that gain was offset by the loss of 61,000 public sector posts.

Union members accounted for 37% of public sector positions, up slightly from 36.2% in 2010. However, they represented just 6.9% of private employment in both years, the AFL-CIO said.

The biggest gains in union membership were in construction, healthcare services, retail trade, primary metals and fabricated metal products, hospitals and transportation, the union said, citing U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

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The debate over public sector unions

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Comments (2)

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publicSERVANT2 at 11:05 AM January 30, 2012

Perhaps you might know that public school teachers are public servants. You don't need to "know" anyone to get hired as a school teacher. You just need to go to college, get your degree and fill one of the many teaching jobs available in any school where there is an opening. There are always openings in inner-city districts. Perhaps you might consider taking that "government job" -- you said "who wouldn't take a government job if they could get it?" -- Now's your chance. Just don't do it in states which are Right To Work, because those states do not have unions for teachers and the results show it.

QuarkHadren at 1:56 PM January 27, 2012

The article mentions that unions represent more than a third of the government employees. It missed that government employees make up more than half of the total union membership....

Think about that. If unions are important to protect workers from bad employers, why is the membership composed mostly of people who work for the government? And that a very small percentage of private sector employees belong to unions?

Seems a terrible shame to me. Personally, I think public sector employees - those paid by taxpayer dollars - shouldn't be allowed to be in a union. Lets face it, who wouldn't take a government job if they could get it? (But can't because they don't 'know' the right people.)

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