New York Times - January 20, 2000
Growth in Unions' Membership in 1999 Was the Best in Two Decades
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
Union membership nationwide rose faster last year than at any time in the past two decades, a development that labor experts called the strongest sign yet that John J. Sweeney, the A.F.L.-C.I.O.'s president, was succeeding in his efforts to reverse the labor movement's lengthy slide.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics announced yesterday that union membership climbed by 265,000 last year, to 16.5 million, with growth coming not just among government workers, but also in the private sector, where union membership has plunged in recent decades.
"It's quite significant," said Kent Wong, director of the Center for Labor Research and Education at the University of California at Los Angeles. "After a decline that had been continuing for several decades, the labor movement has finally begun to see a rise in union membership."
Labor leaders said the growth stemmed largely from stepped-up organizing efforts by individual unions. They said a secondary factor was that some growth in the unionized work force came about when unionized employers hired additional workers as the booming economy added 2.7 million jobs last year.
Even some fierce critics of unions acknowledged that last year's growth was impressive. Leo Troy, a Rutgers University economics professor who is writing a book he plans to call "The Twilight of Unionism," said: "My first reaction is it's definitely a surprise, and a positive step for organized labor. Whether it represents a real turnaround, we have to wait and see. What's the biggest surprise is it's the first increase in a long time in private-sector union membership, and that's very good news for the labor movement."
With union membership falling by one-fourth since 1980, Mr. Sweeney hailed the new numbers as showing that his push to get the nation's unions to devote more resources to recruitment was paying off.
"These numbers show we've gotten this train rolling, and its picking up speed, but we're not at our destination yet," Mr. Sweeney said.
He noted that many workers who had long shunned unions were now seeking to join them to get more voice in their workplace, including doctors, software workers, graduate teaching assistants and even many workers in the anti-union South.
Mr. Sweeney said unions needed to show gains for several more years before labor began to regain some of the formidable strength it once had. In the 1950's, unions represented 35 percent of the nation's work force, but last year they represented just 13.9 percent -- a figure that remained unchanged from 1998.
Since Mr. Sweeney took the helm of the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations in late 1995, he has not just increased labor's focus on organizing, but expanded its political clout by getting unions to devote more effort and money to electoral campaigns. Any future increases in union membership could further strengthen labor's influence in politics and collective bargaining.
Labor leaders pointed to several major victories in last year's efforts, among them organizing 74,000 home health aides in Los Angeles in the biggest successful organizing drive since the 1930's, and unionizing 5,200 Pillowtex-Cannon textile workers in North Carolina after nine decades of failed efforts.
In recent decades, union membership among government workers has soared as many state and city governments gave civil servants the right to join unions. At the same time, membership in the fast-growing private sector fell steadily as the nation's heavily unionized manufacturing sector shed jobs and as many companies battled organizing drives.
Mr. Sweeney said that in 1999 the nation's unions organized 600,000 additional workers, the most since the 1970's. But growth in labor's ranks was far smaller than that, union leaders explained, because of layoffs of unionized workers.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics said unions added 112,000 members in the private sector last year, the biggest increase in two decades. It reported that 9.4 million private-sector workers were unionized last year, representing 9.4 percent of the private-sector workforce.
The bureau also found that 7.1 million government employees were unionized, 37.3 percent of public-sector employees. The United Auto Workers has focused on organizing auto parts plants while construction unions have mounted their biggest efforts in decades to organize work sites.
"The private-sector growth is a clear sign that our efforts to think strategically and creatively are beginning to bear fruit," said Kirk Adams, the A.F.L.-C.I.O.'s organizing director.
Mr. Adams announced last week that he would soon leave that post to take a job as a top assistant to the president of the Service Employees' union.
Many labor leaders cite the Service Employees International Union as a model for organizing. That union said it organized 155,000 workers last year, mostly health-care workers, and said it spent $70 million on organizing, accounting for 47 percent of the union's budget.
Elaine Bernard, director of the Harvard University Trade Union Program, said the ambitious plans Mr. Sweneey announced in 1995 to expand labor's ranks seemed to be succeeding.
"You're turning an oil tanker around, and it takes a long time to turn it," Ms. Bernard said.