Has union organizing turned the corner toward real growth?

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.laborradio.org/node/10411

Has union organizing turned the corner toward real growth? Doug Cunningham takes a look.

In 2008 the percentage of American workers belonging to unions was up by three tenths of a percent. That’ s the first statistically significant gain in 25 years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Unions in 2008 saw a net gain of 428,000 more workers.
John Schmitt, a senior economist with the Center for Economic and Policy Research says that while labor isn’t yet out of the woods, but some of the biggest structural problems for union growth seem to have abated. Until 2008 labor was in a decline. Today 12.4 percent of U.S. workers are in unions. In 2007 union member bumped up by one-tenth of a percent, but economists said that was not statistically significant. Much of the growth in union membership in 2008 came from government workers in public sector unions. And it came in a year that saw total employment drop. If the Employee Free Choice Act is passed, unions are expected to continue to grow at an even faster rate.

[spindrifter]

1. I wish we could use unions to force banks to

stop indulging their executives with outrageous bonuses and to start giving loans so people can get back to the work of spending money.