Also, the recent shift in this country towards technology and service has made our economy less reliant in the types of industrial jobs that tended to be union strongholds. Today's worker tends to more highly educated and tends to the professional, white-collar class. All of these have conspired to decrease union membership. .
With businesses making concerted efforts to avoid unionization employees are benefiting from higher salaries and better work conditions without the added stress of potential strikes and union dues. Employers are able to maintain more of their rights and controls over business practices without union interference. The mere threat of unionization often moves employers into self-evaluative and preventative action prior to unionization. .
Declining membership can be deceiving and lead one to think organized labor unions are on their way out. Eventually this may happen but labor unions are currently alive and well in the United States and they wield a great deal of power. Let`s look to some recent statistics to prove these trends :.
In 2002, 13.2 percent of wage and salary workers were union members, down from 13.4 percent (as revised) in 2001, the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The number of persons belonging to a union fell by 280,000 over the year to 16.1 million in 2002. The union membership rate has steadily declined from a high of 20.1 percent in 1983, the first year for which comparable union data are available. .
16.1 Million members is a very impressive showing for organized labor in our country. When the forces of organized labor flex their collective muscle the impact is significant for business and industry. "In 2002, full-time wage and salary workers who were union members had median usual weekly earnings of $740, compared with a median of $587 for wage and salary workers who were not represented by unions."". .
Important : Yet despite labor's small membership base today, most Americans approve of labor unions and believe that unions are generally helpful to workers who are union members, helpful to companies where workers are organized, and helpful to the economy.
