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<p>I am forwarding this because neither my InBox nor any other
folder except Sent contains a copy of it.</p>
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<p><b>Ken</b></p>
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<td>States With the Strongest and Weakest Unions</td>
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<th valign="BASELINE" align="RIGHT" nowrap="nowrap">Date: </th>
<td>Fri, 2 Mar 2018 08:29:57 -0800</td>
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<th valign="BASELINE" align="RIGHT" nowrap="nowrap">From: </th>
<td>Kenneth Marcy <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:kmmos1@frontier.com"><kmmos1@frontier.com></a></td>
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<th valign="BASELINE" align="RIGHT" nowrap="nowrap">To: </th>
<td>Moscow Vision 2020 <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:vision2020@moscow.com"><vision2020@moscow.com></a></td>
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<b>States With the Strongest and Weakest Unions</b></p>
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<p><b><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://tinyurl.com/y7p7uvor" moz-do-not-send="true">https://tinyurl.com/y7p7uvor</a>
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<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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. <br>
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<div class="wp-caption aligncenter"
src="https://247wallst.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/idaho-e1454958250739.jpg"
alt="" width="645" height="363"
data-credit="Thinkstock" data-id="313734"
data-caption" style="width: 655px"><img class="aligncenter
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src="https://247wallst.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/idaho-e1454958250739.jpg?w=645&h=363"
alt="" data-credit="Thinkstock" data-id="313734"
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width="645">
<div class="wallst_image_source"><span>Source:</span> Thinkstock</div>
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<p><strong>9. Idaho</strong><br>
<strong>> Pct. of workers in unions:</strong> 4.8%<br>
<strong>> Union workers</strong> 34,759 (5th fewest)<br>
<strong>> 10-yr. change in union membership:</strong> +4.1%
(16th highest)<br>
<strong>> Avg. annual wage:</strong> $40,505 (2nd lowest)</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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. <br>
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<p><b><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://tinyurl.com/y7p7uvor" moz-do-not-send="true">https://tinyurl.com/y7p7uvor</a>
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<p>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.<br>
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<p><b>Ken </b><br>
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