Union membership data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics today shows that in the private sector, union membership increased by about 110,000, with union density holding steady at 6.9 percent. Union density remained unchanged between 2010 and 2011 because union employment increased at the same pace in 2011 as overall employment in the sector.
In the construction industry, there has been a significant uptick last year in both members of unions, and workers covered under a union contract (such as in a Project Labor Agreement) nationally. This is quite good news after the recession, that shows that construction trades unions are recovering. The recession saw the shrinking of union membership by almost a third. Now there are 874,000 union members in construction in 2011, an increase of 9.1% in one year. Moreover, 54,000 additional workers that were not members of unions, were covered by union contracts, which represents a significant jump of 45% between 2010-2011. This shows that increasingly, construction workers, both union and non-union, are being represented by unions at the bargaining table.
The survey data also shows that workers with union representation earn higher wages, more likely to receive healthcare and work full-time.