(Government) workers of the world unite!

[_CY_]

Public-sector unions have had a good few decades. Has their luck run out?

THE past 30 years have been dismal ones for the labour movement. In the American private sector trade-union density (ie, the proportion of workers who belong to unions) has fallen from a third in 1979 to just 7% today. In Britain it has dropped from 44% to 15%. Nor is this just an Anglo-Saxon oddity: less than a fifth of workers in the OECD belong to unions.

There is one big exception to this story of decline, however: the public sector. In the Canadian public sector union density has increased from 12% in 1960 to more than 70% today. In America it has increased over the same period from 11% to 36% (see chart). There are now more American workers in unions in the public sector (7.6m) than in the private sector (7.1m), although the private sector employs five times as many people. Union density is now higher in the public sector than it was in the private sector in its glory days, in the 1950s.

http://www.economist.com/node/17849199

 

[_CY_]

with the Wi mess brewing... thought this data would be helpful.

 

[Billybob]

Maybe you should repost this in the Wi. thread, it's turned into a discussion on unions.

 

[Dale00]

I'm going to attribute the drop in private-sector union membership to the shift of U.S. manufacturing overseas.

Public-sector union membership is likely to take a similar dive due to state budget crises. If the voting citizen is facing declining state services etc. and they keep hearing how public-sector employees are making much more than they would receive in the private-sector, then the outcome is obvious.

 

[Skiluvr03]

I have to bite my tongue and keep my cool, because you don't want to hear what I have to say about Unions and how they have hurt our country. There was a time when Unions were needed, but they have outlived their usefulness by being so greedy.

 

[GlockPride]

Sounds like there might be some 'union defending' going on here.
We wouldn't want that right now. Cut the union crap and be done with them!

 

[farmerbyron]

I'm going to attribute the drop in private-sector union membership to the shift of U.S. manufacturing overseas.

Public-sector union membership is likely to take a similar dive due to state budget crises. If the voting citizen is facing declining state services etc. and they keep hearing how public-sector employees are making much more than they would receive in the private-sector, then the outcome is obvious.

Those 2 phenomenons are not unrelated.

 

[LightningCrash]

I'm going to attribute the drop in private-sector union membership to the shift of U.S. manufacturing overseas.

Can you substantiate that with anything?

 

[DPI]

I'm going to attribute the drop in private-sector union membership to the shift of U.S. manufacturing overseas.

I am going to say the opposite. I think the unions have sent US jobs overseas.

 

[Dale00]

Can you substantiate that with anything?

No, just a correlation. Can you suggest a more likely explanation for the drop in private-sector union membership?