78,000 New Federal Union Members
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, union membership in the federal sector rose by 78,000 workers between 2007 and 2008, a 1.3 percent total increase in the number of federal workers in unions. I know the National Treasury Employees Union says their membership is at a high point in their 70-year history, and I'll be looking into where the gains come from, overall.
This was a good year for union membership overall in the United States; unions gained 428,000 members in the public and private sectors last year. But most of those gains went to the public sector, especially in state and local governments. Some of that imbalance may be due to layoffs in unionized parts of the private sector: it hasn't exactly been an awesome year for auto workers for example. But I do wonder if Bush administration moves to curtail union organizing and unions' power may have backfired and made unions seem like a more appealing prospect for some federal workers.
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Government Executive Staff Correspondent Alyssa Rosenberg takes a look at news affecting the management and operations of the massive federal bureaucracy.
Alyssa,
Even though union workers may be laid off right now, thay are still union members. I retired from the Federal Government two years ago and I'm still a dues paying member of the American Federation of Government Employees.
W D Jackson Posted Thursday, January 29, 2009 10:30 AMWD, the Bureau's numbers don't include retirees; just union members as a percentage of people currently employed.
Alyssa Rosenberg Posted Thursday, January 29, 2009 10:39 AMwww.layoffdaily.com
Fed Up Posted Thursday, January 29, 2009 10:42 AMAs far as DOD goes, look no further than NSPS for the gains in AFGE membership.
Finance Guy Posted Thursday, January 29, 2009 2:43 PMCurious; are we talking dues-paying members or just employees coverd by a CBA? Totally different numbers. A recent election I know of resulted in a large increase in the later because of apparent apathy in the voting group (less than 30% responded and of that barely 2/3 voted for union representation).
I've been on both sides of the fence - member of Teamsters and also of management - and I see very, very little that the union does for the workforce these days, other than take my dues...
Submariner Posted Friday, January 30, 2009 7:07 AMSubmariner, the BLS gives two sets of numbers: members of unions, and people represented by unions. I used the former set of numbers for these calculations, because I think they actually give a better sense of how people see themselves.
Alyssa Rosenberg Posted Friday, January 30, 2009 9:19 AMDon't know where those numbers are coming from. The last two agencies I've lead had less than 15% dues paying members.
Maybe they are associate members numbers?
D Posted Thursday, February 12, 2009 7:14 AM