Labor Day: Union Decline

Mike Allen and Stef Kight at Axios:

• The percentage of U.S. workers who are union members fell from 20.1% in 1983 to just 10.5% in 2018, according to the Pew Research Center.
• Dying union membership has been most pronounced in Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin ...

The main reasons for the decline, according to Brookings:

1. The shift from manufacturing to a services-based economy.
2. More people are getting college degrees, and workers with a high school degree or less have typically been more likely to have union jobs.
3. The rise of tech, with the attraction of more high-paying, nonunion jobs for the highest-skilled workers.
4. Deregulation, which made it easier for nonunion employers to compete.
5. The spread of right-to-work legislation, which allows for some workers to receive the benefits of unions without paying dues.
6. Aggressive employers who have used tactics like delaying union elections, hiring consultants to help fight unionization and publicly opposing unions.

Government employment has been a bright spot for organized labor, but a SCOTUS decision on agency fees could hurts public sector unions.