Union Membership Grows by 100,000

Union membership in the United States grew in 1998 by more than 100,000, to 16.2 million, reversing three years of losses, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) announced January 25. Membership grew fastest in government and in the public service sector, increasing slightly from 37.2 percent the year before to 37.5 percent.

But the figures reflect two trends for labor: The rate of union membership in the private sector fell last year from 9.7 percent to 9.5 percent and the percentage of unionized workers overall declined from 14.1 percent to 13.9 percent.

In 1998, union members had median weekly earnings of $659, compared with a median of $499 for nonunion wage and salary workers.

About 60 percent of the 16.2 million union members were in private nonagricultural industries, such as communications and public utilities (26.0 percent) and transportation (25.7 percent). The other 40 percent worked in federal, state or local government.

The unionization rate was highest, at 41.3 percent, among workers in protective services, i.e., police officers and firefighters.

AFSCME’s membership grew last year too — by 9,500 members. During the previous two years, membership had been stagnant.

“We are gratified that the organizing successes of 1997 and 1998 are starting to show up in net growth,” says Paul Booth, assistant to AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee.

“The growth occurred,” Booth says, “particularly in our state-employee activity in Maryland and Puerto Rico and in hospital organizing in California, Michigan and Ohio. AFSCME’s 1998 convention mandated redoubling organizing efforts and we’re counting on them to spur growth into the millennium.”