Decline in Union Density No Cause for Worry

Daniel GriswoldUnion organizers have been winning a few battles to organize workers in coffee shops and distribution warehouses, but they continue to lose the war over the relative importance of unions in the private-sector labor market.This week the U.S.Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the share of private sector workers who belong to unions, the so-called “union density,” fell to another post-war low of 6.0 percent in 2022. The number of workers in private-sector unions actually grew last year, but not enough to keep up with the overall growth in private-sector employment.The decline in union membership isn ’t driven primarily by “union-busting” employers or business-friendly Republicans, but by the changing nature of the U.S. economy. Over past decades, product and service markets have tended to become more competitive, both from more openness to global trade and investment and from more domesti c dynamism spurred by deregulation in trucking, energy and other sectors. To stay competitive, domestic firms have tended to migrate to more business-friendly, “right to work” states, mostly in the Southeast.Figure 1 below showsBLS data on private-sector union density going back to 1983. One striking pattern is that the decline has been remorseless, and actually dates back to the unionization peak in the early 1950s. The decline began long before the United States signed such trade agreements as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) or the Uruguay Ro...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs