"The Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported another decline in national union membership. At the same time, a national pollster reports that more Americans than ever say they are favorably disposed toward labor unions.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics report shows that the percentage of unionized workers in the private sector has fallen below 9 percent, while it remains a strong 38 percent in the public sector. There were 16.1 million union members in 2002, down from 16.4 million in 2001. This happened despite organizing by about 500,000 workers. Most of the decline is attributable to the bad economy and large-scale layoffs in unionized industries like airlines. Yet union members continue to set salary (26 percent more than non-union workers), benefit, health care, pension and safety standards for all other workers in the U.S.
The national AFL-CIO reports that every other industrial democracy in the world has rates of unionization that are at least two times greater in the private sector and 75 percent in the public sector."
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