Posts tagged union membership
Workers exert leverage in tight labor market: Strikes doubled in 2022
February 23, 2023 // About 224,000 total people walked off the job in 424 strikes, up from 279 strikes in 2021. Most of them were demanding better pay and healthcare. Fast food workers with the "Fight for $15" campaign and Starbucks baristas organized over 100 strikes. In one of the most memorable, a number of Starbucks workers at stores across the country refused to man the espresso machines on "Red Cup Day" — the start of the profitable holiday drink season for the company. But education workers put the biggest stamp on labor action. About 60% of the workers striking in 2022 were educators, meaning the spotlight continues to be on frontline sectors after healthcare workers drove most of the action 2021, during the height of the pandemic.
Mergers and Acquisitions: How the National Education Association’s Membership Numbers Keep Going Up
February 17, 2023 // To put this in its proper perspective, one in every five union members belongs to NEA — two of every five public-sector union members. After NEA delegates rejected a national merger with the American Federation of Teachers back in 1998, a handful of NEA state affiliates merged with their AFT counterparts. When that happens, both national unions count the other’s as new members.
Why labor’s surging popularity isn’t translating to union membership
January 25, 2023 // One legal catalyst for the decline in union membership was a 5-4 ruling by the Supreme Court in 2018, which said that unions could no longer force workers to pay dues. Since then, the Freedom Foundation, an anti-union group, says it’s helped 133,000 workers leave public-sector unions. Meanwhile, the public sector has lost workers amid a labor shortage. The unionization rate dropped in this area from 33.9% in 2018, to 33.1% in 2022, an all-time low.
Union membership grows the fastest of any state in Tennessee over the past two years
January 24, 2023 // The number of Tennessee workers belonging to labor unions has grown over the past two years at the fastest rate of any state in the country. Fueled by a growth in unionized government employees, building trades and autoworkers, union membership in Tennessee jumped by more than 39% from the pandemic low in 2020 to reach 163,000 members last year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. For all its gains, however, organized labor still represents only a fraction of workers in Tennessee, especially in the private sector. Last year, 5.5% of all workers across Tennessee were union members, or only about half of the 10.1% share of workers nationwide who belong to a labor union, according to the statistics bureau.
US union membership rate hits all-time low despite campaigns
January 23, 2023 // The number of workers belonging to a union actually increased by 1.9% to 14.3 million. But that failed to keep pace with higher overall employment rates. The number of wage- and salary-earning workers rose by 3.9%, the government said. U.S. union membership has been falling steadily for decades. In 1983, the first year that comparable data is available, the union membership rate was 20.1%, the government said. Public-sector workers, like police and teachers, had the highest unionization rates last year, at 33%. Just 6% of private-sector workers were unionized.
Government Unions Can’t Keep Forcing Public Employees to Pay Up
December 22, 2022 //
Right-to-Work battle looms in Michigan: Businesses fear repeal by Democrats
December 5, 2022 // Michigan business groups are wary of Democrats’ calls to repeal Right-to-Work laws when they take charge in Lansing early next year, saying the state instead should focus on economic policies that attract jobs. Business Leaders for Michigan, the Michigan Chamber of Commerce and chamber leaders from the state’s two largest cities — Detroit and Grand Rapids — all urge caution. But Democrats — who are backed heavily by unions including the Michigan Education Association and United Auto Workers — say the move prioritizes workers and labor rights.
Union bosses rake it in, even as their ranks shrink
November 15, 2022 // The new report, provocatively titled “Labor’s Fortress of Finance” by the pro-labor Radish Research, looks at the balance sheets of big unions since 2010, based on financial statements they must file with the Department of Labor. It finds that, over that period, unions have lost some 710,000 members, yet union membership revenues increased by one-third, to $18 billion — 85% of that from fees on members, which grew by a similar rate. By contrast, union spending increased by just 18% over that time. The money that unions expended representing workers, for instance, improved by just 13%. As a result, the surplus (the equivalent of profits at a business) that unions generated grew almost sixfold, to nearly $2.5 billion in 2021, from just $426 million in 2010. Collectively, their cash on hand more than doubled in 11 years to $11.3 billion, their investments soared nearly 150% to $17.4 billion, and their net assets rose 120%, to $31.6 billion.
JUST 19% OF CTU’S SPENDING IN 2021 WAS TO REPRESENT TEACHERS
August 26, 2022 // Only $134 of each Chicago Teachers Union member’s dues is actually spent on representing Chicago Public Schools teachers. The rest is spent on other CTU leadership priorities and on the union hierarchy. Representing members is supposed to be a union’s core purpose, but just 19% of the Chicago Teachers Union’s spending in 2021 was on “representational activities.”