Union rates released

The percent of wage and salary workers who were members of unions in 2014 was 11.1 percent, down 0.2 percent from 2013, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The number of union members, 14.6 million, was little different from 2013. But the drop from 1983, the first year for which comparable union data are available, was significant. In that year the union membership rate was 20.1 percent, and there were 17.7 million union workers. In the four states that are part of the I-10 aerospace corridor, the rate went up slightly in three of the four and remained the same in the other. Mississippi had the lowest union membership with a rate of 3.7 percent, same as in 2013. Louisiana had a union membership rate of 5.2 percent in 2014, up from 4.3 in 2013, and Florida had a union membership rate of 5.7 percent, up from 5.4 in 2013. Alabama's union membership rate was 10.8 percent in 2014, up from 10.7 in 2013. (Source: GCAC, 01/23/15)