INSTITUTE INDEX: Starving the unions

Rate of union membership in the U.S. in 2010: 11.9 percent

Number of years since the union membership rate was that low: 70

Number of U.S. workers who belonged to unions in 2010: 14.7 million

Decline in union membership over the previous year, attributable in part to the recession eroding employment in organized industries: 612,000

Rate of union membership in 1983, the first year for which comparable data are available: 20.1 percent

Decline in number of U.S. workers in unions between 1983 and 2010: 3 million

In 2010, rate of union membership for U.S. public sector workers:  36.2 percent

For private sector workers: 6.9 percent

Number of years since the union membership rate for private sector workers was that low: more than 100

Of the top 10 states in terms of union membership, number in the South: 0*

Of the bottom 10 states in terms of union membership, number in the South: 9**

Rank of North Carolina among states with the lowest rate of union membership: 1

Percent of North Carolina workers who belong to unions: 3.2

Rate of union membership for blacks in the U.S. in 2010: 13.4 percent

For whites: 11.7 percent

For Asians: 10.9 percent

For Hispanics: 10 percent

Age group with the highest union membership rate: 55 to 64

With the lowest: 16 to 24

Median usual weekly earnings for union members in 2010: $917

For non-union workers: $717

Number of states that currently have so-called "right to work" laws banning unions from requiring workers to join a union or pay dues for union representation: 22

Of all of those states, number in the South: 11***

Minimum number of states where lawmakers plan to introduce legislation this year barring private sector unions from requiring the workers they represent to pay dues, thus hurting union treasuries: 10

Number of states where lawmakers want to further starve labor by requiring public sector union members to "opt in" before their dues can be used for political activities: 16

*    NY, AK, HI, WA, CA, NJ, CT, MI, RI, OR
**  NC, AR, GA, LA, MS, SC, VA, TN, TX, OK
*** AL, AR, FL, GA, LA, MS, NC, SC, TN, TX, VA

(Click on figure to go to source. Photo of protest against anti-union efforts at the University of North Carolina by Brian Russell via Flickr.)