[Vision2020] Fwd: States With the Strongest and Weakest Unions

[Kenneth Marcy]

I am forwarding this because neither my InBox nor any other folder
except Sent contains a copy of it.



*Ken*




-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: 	States With the Strongest and Weakest Unions
Date: 	Fri, 2 Mar 2018 08:29:57 -0800
From: 	Kenneth Marcy <kmmos1 at frontier.com>
To: 	Moscow Vision 2020 <vision2020 at moscow.com>





*States With the Strongest and Weakest Unions*


*https://tinyurl.com/y7p7uvor
*

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Labor unions exist to increase the collective bargaining power of their
members to negotiate higher wages and better benefits. And historically,
they have done just that. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics,
the typical non-union worker earns just 80% of what the typical
unionized worker earns on a weekly basis. Labor unions have also helped
to greatly improve benefits and reduce pay inequality along racial and
gender lines.

While unions can provide some benefits to workers, anti-union advocates
argue that unions stifle economic growth, limit corporate
competitiveness, and unfairly pass higher costs down to the consumer or
taxpayer. In an increasingly competitive and interconnected global
economy, union membership is eroding in the United States. Today, just
10.7% of the U.S. workforce is unionized, down from 24.0% in 1973.

Labor unions are an inherently political issue, and some states are more
likely to be receptive to collective bargaining than others. 24/7 Wall
St. reviewed data from the BLS to identify the states where union
membership is the strongest and weakest. In some states — many of which
are concentrated in the West and the Northeast — union membership rates
are high, near levels not seen nationwide since the 1970s. However, in
other states — many of which are in the South — union membership rates
are less than half the comparable national rate.


Source: Thinkstock

*9. Idaho*
*> Pct. of workers in unions:* 4.8%
*> Union workers* 34,759 (5th fewest)
*> 10-yr. change in union membership:* +4.1% (16th highest)
*> Avg. annual wage:* $40,505 (2nd lowest)

Just 4.8% of the workforce in Idaho are union members, the ninth
smallest share among states. The primary function of a union is to
increase the bargaining power of laborers to negotiate higher wages. In
Idaho, the average worker earns just $40,505 a year, the lowest annual
average of any state with the exception of Mississippi.

The manufacturing sector has historically been a bastion for unions, and
though union participation in manufacturing is falling nationwide due in
part to increased competition from overseas, Idaho is bucking the trend.
Private sector manufacturing union membership climbed from 4.1% of
sector workers in 2007 to 6.8% in 2017, nearly the largest such increase
of any state. Nationwide, union membership in manufacturing fell by 2.2
percentage points to 9.1% over the same period.



*https://tinyurl.com/y7p7uvor *



So, with the next to lowest average annual salary, Idaho's private
sector union percentage has increased to 6.8% last year, it is still
2.3% below the national average, though rising while the national rate
falls.  It remains to be seen whether the increased union membership
percentages will win for themselves, and others, increases in average
annual salaries that seem to be positively correlated with increased
union membership.



*Ken *



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