----- Original Message -----
From: Charles Brown <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Wednesday, January 24, 2001 5:42 PM
Subject: [CrashList] U.S. union membership hits low
Curiously there is quite a different picture here in UK
- please see item below [Bill]
Unions ride again
After years of decline trade unions are enjoying a revival and even the shop steward
is sporting a new name
Nick Tester
Tuesday January 23, 2001
Fred Kite, the late Peter Sellers' sublime portrait of a union shop steward in the
classic comedy film I'm all right Jack, was many things: posturing buffoon, blustering
windbag and general figure of mockery.
But even his worst enemies wouldn't have called him a "learning rep". It hardly
conveys the anathema of "scab" or "blackleg," but it sounds distinctly iffy to anyone
rooted in the industrial relations of the 50s, 60s and 70s.
And yet in today's employment landscape, stewards can refer to themselves as "learning
reps" without blushing.
Demands for better wage packets and improved working conditions remain at the top of
the collective agenda. But waving the flag for more and better training of their
members is the most obvious sign of a renaissance in the trade union movement.
Figures alone suggest that unions are enjoying a revival of fortunes. Last year total
recruitment went up by more than 100,000 compared to 1999 - the first serious up-turn
for more than two decades, according to the Trades Union Congress (TUC). Although not
a massive rise (there are, after all, 6.7m workers affiliated through their unions to
the TUC, with another 1m outside the organisation) it is nonetheless a significant
increase after years of shedding members and public hostility.
The unions' rediscovered passion for education and training is apparent on a number of
fronts, a fact recognised by their traditional adversaries - the bosses. The
Confederation of British Industry is the first to hold up its hand and acknowledge the
part now being played by unions in forging better industrial relations through more
organised and improved work-based training provision.
Anne Lindsay of the confederation's learning and skills group says the unions, many of
whom are major employers in their own right, are pushing at an open door.
"Training is now seen as vital to companies, particularly in the new global economy,
and trade unions are partners. They now recognise profits count and that the surest
way to get results is to improve training opportunities and reskill the workforce,"
she explains.
The TUC, led by general secretary John Monks, who also happens to be a member of the
15-strong Learning and Skills Council (one of the big tasks will be handling the
unions' "learning fund"), has helped reinvent the trade union movement, according to
Sarah Perman, director of the Partnership Institute.
The institute, launched by Tony Blair last week, is perhaps symbolic of the ending of
the old "them and us" relationship. It is being backed by both the TUC, which is
providing five staff and a network of 26 consultants; and chambers of commerce.
Already Barclays Bank, Birmingham Health Trust and a major meat-packaging company have
come on board to explore new collaborative arrangements between staff and employers,
with training being the common currency, Perman points out.
"Training is the major part of our work. We want to create a culture- change in the
workforce and we are working hand-in-hand with employers to do so," she says.
"The issue now is about helping employers improve productivity and helping unions gain
respect and new members - in other words, growth for both."
All this is a long way from the public loathing trade unions commanded during the
1980s and 1990s, declares Liz Smith of the TUC's Learning Services initiative.
"We are now enjoying a revival. Twenty years ago trade unions were at the heart of
developing apprenticeship courses and other forms of youth training schemes. But
successive Tory governments then dismantled our role. Although we did work with the
training and enterprise councils, they had a difficult task which did not leave a lot
of scope for us to influence training provision."
Smith cites several examples of today's unions shaping the agenda. More than 2,000
work-based learning reps - union representatives who in the past had been the rabble
rousers and prime recruitment levers on the shop floor - have been equipped over the
last two years with new skills to help promote the desirability of training. The
learning reps are the important intermediaries, negotiating with employers and
training providers, spreading the training message up and down the line.
"The language has changed," Smith says. "We seek to form partnerships with employers,
because we share the benefits of having a better trained workforce. Unions are also
helping employers understand the need for greater flexibility in the way training is
done. It is not just about sending people on courses, but giving them time off work,
having colleges come to do more training in the workplace, and training times that are
realistic."
One of the most innovative schemes involves Walls, the ice cream-makers, whose
learning reps across the country are helping workers - mostly women with no
qualifications - draw up learning plans.
"This has made quite a difference to the culture of the company," Smith claims. "And I
suspect that this cultural shift towards giving staff opportunities to learn is having
an impact on the bottom line - selling more ice cream."
A crucial demand, from the unions' perspective, is the need for UK workers to get a
statutory right to time off work to improve their skills. Although a lot of voluntary
agreements have been forged with employers, the continued absence of the sort of
legally binding contract enjoyed by many employees elsewhere in Europe rankles deep.
Unions believe there is a limit to how far they can exert influence in the training
arena unless workers are given, say, five days paid leave to study.
However, legislation will not solve everything, Smith says. "Unions can still do more
to improve workers' self-esteem, alter their perception of learning, help them get
over the failure attitude and provide encouragement, particularly in the area of basic
skills."
Union Membership Hits Lowest Point Since WWII
In what should be a wake-up call to both the full trade union movement,
and all progressives, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported last week
that union membership declined to the lowest point since World War II.
Union membership totals 16.3 million, or 13.5 percent of all wage and
salary workers.
1. BLS Summary highlights and link to full report
2. Economic Report of the President, 2001 and link to full report
3. New York Times story and link
4. Wall Street Journal story
==========================
UNION MEMBERS IN 2000
The share of wage and salary workers who are union members averaged 13.5
percent in 2000 as compared with 13.9 percent in 1999, the U.S.
Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The
number of union members, 16.3 million, also fell slightly from its 1999
level. The union membership rate has fallen from 20.1 percent in 1983,
the first year for which comparable data are available. Some highlights
from the 2000 data are:
--Nearly 4 in 10 government workers were union members, compared
withless than 1 in 10 private sector employees.
--Protective service workers, a group that includes police officers
andfire fighters, had the highest unionization rate--39.4 percent.
--Blacks were more likely than either whites or Hispanics to be
unionmembers.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics report may be found at
http://stats.bls.gov/news.release/union2.toc.htm
[Full text at <ftp://146.142.4.23/pub/news.release/union2.txt>.]
==========================
Economic Report of the President, 2001
Transmitted to the Congress January 2001
http://w3.access.gpo.gov/usbudget/fy2002/pdf/2001_erp.pdf
The 2001 Economic Report of the President analyzes the emergence of a
New Economy and examines the driving forces that created this dynamic
economy: technology, changed business practices, and wise economic
policies.
==========================
Unions Hit Lowest Point in 6 Decades
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE -- THE NEW YORK TIMES; January 21, 2001
The percentage of American workers belonging to unions fell last year to
13.5 percent, its lowest point in six decades.
In releasing its survey of union membership last week, the Bureau of
Labor Statistics also found that the number of union members declined by
200,000 last year to 16.3 million, a discouraging development for the
labor movement at a time it is straining to reverse the decline.
Economists offered several explanations for the decline, including
retirements by union members, layoffs of many unionized workers because
of foreign competition and the failure of unions to organize enough
additional members to offset such losses.
"There are still many large economic forces acting against labor's
holding on to the numbers it has," said Tom Juravich, director of the
labor studies center at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
Last year's membership decline was a blow to union leaders after they
had boasted of an apparent turnaround in 1999. That year union
membership climbed by 240,000, its largest increase in more than a
decade. In addition, the percentage of workers in unions remained steady
at 13.9 percent, giving unions hope that they had arrested a steady
decline in that percentage.
...Labor leaders said they had grown increasingly successful in
organizing low-paid workers, like janitors and home health aides, as
well as high- paid professionals, including doctors and psychologists.
But such gains have been offset by the steady erosion of employment in
labor's core industries, like autos and steel.
"What's clear is that to stop any future decline organizing needs to
stay absolutely on the front burner," Professor Juravich said. "There is
no substitute for organizing."
full story at: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/21/national/21LABO.html
==========================
U.S. Union Membership Declined To a Record Low 13.5% in 2000
By YOCHI J. DREAZEN Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL --
Jan.19, 2001
WASHINGTON -- Capping off a rough year for the nation's labor movement,
the percentage of the total work force belonging to a union plunged to
a record low in 2000, as the number of union members also slid.
The government reported that union membership fell to 13.5% of the work
force last year, the lowest level since data collection began in 1983.
The rate had held steady in the two previous years.
The labor movement continues to do far better in the public sector,
where layoffs are difficult to impose, than in the private sector, which
is starting to feel the sting of slower economic growth. The unions'
share of private-sector workers fell to a record low of 9% last year
from 9.5% the year before while its share of government workers inched
up to 37.5% from 37.3%. The total number of union members, meanwhile,
slipped to 16.3 million from 16.5 million in 1999.
The declines come as labor poured unprecedented amounts of human and
financial resources into last year's elections, only to see Republicans
win control, for the first time in more than four decades, of the White
House as well as both houses of Congress.
The decreases also represent an embarrassing setback for AFL-CIO leaders
who had trumpeted the 1999 figures as proof they had reversed a
decades-long slide in membership and prestige. The number of union
members had grown slightly in 1999, but the membership rate remained
unchanged.
"This suggests that 1999 was a fluke year, and that the leaders of the
union movement actually haven't figured out a way to stanch the
bleeding," said Gary Chaison, a union expert and professor at Clark
University in Worcester, Mass.
AFL-CIO organizing director Mark Splain said he was disappointed. "We
recognize that the numbers are not where we want or need them to be," he
said, "but we're making some inroads among engineers and other
professional workers."
The Labor Department data painted a picture of a labor movement
struggling to adjust to the rapid changes roiling the economy.
Traditional union strongholds, such as manufacturing and transportation,
have been shedding jobs for years, and organized labor has had
relatively little success securing footholds among high-tech or
temporary workers, two of the fastest-growing sectors of the labor
force.
Both trends have been exacerbated by the slowing economy, which has
hammered areas where unions are strongest. The manufacturing sector, for
instance, shed 194,000 jobs in 2000, while the apparel-making and auto
sectors cut 45,000 positions each.
Those cutbacks added to the long slide in union membership rates. In
1983, unions represented 20.1% of the nation's workers. By 1998, they
had reached the previous record low of 13.9%. The membership rate held
steady in 1999 after unions organized hundreds of thousands of health-
care and service workers in California and Puerto Rico.
Write to Yochi J. Dreazen at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Copyright © 2001 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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