Trend Is Downward For Government Union Membership

Buffeted by Covid-induced economic lockdowns and a Supreme Court ruling that lets government workers decline to join or pay a fee to a union, membership in government labor groups plunged last year. Continuing a trend that began after the 2008–2009 recession, public-sector unions lost 191,000 members in 2021, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. The number of government workers enrolled in a union has now fallen below 7 million for the first time since 1998, and 33.9 percent of all government workers are now unionized, down from a high of 38.7 percent in 1994. Read Full Article »