{"id":8446,"date":"2017-09-04T07:00:24","date_gmt":"2017-09-04T11:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=8446"},"modified":"2017-09-03T17:34:44","modified_gmt":"2017-09-03T21:34:44","slug":"union-density-in-maryland-1983-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=8446","title":{"rendered":"Union Density in Maryland, 1983-2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Adam Pagnucco.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Labor Day is the one day of the year when the press discusses one of America\u2019s great historic institutions, the labor movement. \u00a0Much of the press\u2019s discourse contains annual descriptions of labor\u2019s decline, some sympathetic and some not.\u00a0 Whatever its causes, the story is true: union influence over the economy and American quality of life has been shrinking for decades.\u00a0 Maryland is not immune.<\/p>\n

Labor unions are important protectors of working class and middle class people.\u00a0 Unlike political parties, corporations and the press, labor unions were created directly by working people, are governed by leaders those working people elect and are accountable to their memberships.\u00a0 In their heyday from the 1930s through the 1970s, they played indispensable roles in passing laws on social security, civil rights, wage and hour standards and benefit protections.\u00a0 They also reversed the income inequality that prevailed from the Gilded Age through the 1920s and built America\u2019s first large, influential middle class.\u00a0 Under assault by corporate America, hostile politicians, problematic trade policies and economic change as well as \u2013 in some cases \u2013 handicapped by myopic leadership, they have mostly retreated to the public sector and a few urban strongholds in the Northeast, the Midwest and the West Coast.\u00a0 Many of today\u2019s economic problems, like stagnant wages, vanishing pensions and the increasing dominance of the one percent can be linked to union decline.<\/p>\n

The ultimate source of union power is labor\u2019s percentage of the workforce, commonly called union density.\u00a0 When unions establish collective bargaining for a critical mass of employees in a given market, whether industrial, geographic or both, their compensation becomes the standard that even non-union employers must meet.\u00a0 That\u2019s right \u2013 even non-union workers benefit from unions<\/a>.\u00a0 But when unions are unable to organize significant percentages of workers in their markets, they struggle to maintain high levels of wages and benefits in the face of overwhelming non-union competition.\u00a0 Hence, union density is a critical measure of union effectiveness.<\/p>\n

According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics<\/a>, union density in the United States was 10.7% in 2016, down from 24.0% in 1973.\u00a0 Maryland\u2019s union density in 2016 was 11.0%, almost exactly the national average.\u00a0 New York was the only state in 2016 to have a union density of more than 20% while 27 states had densities of less than 10%.<\/p>\n

One might suppose that Maryland would be an exception to the rule of declining unionization given the size of its public sector, its long-time control by labor-friendly Democrats and the status of Baltimore as a once-great manufacturing and shipping center.\u00a0 But the truth is that Maryland has mirrored the rest of the country in falling union density.\u00a0 In 1983, 18.5% of its total workforce was in unions.\u00a0 By 2016, that share had fallen to 11.0%.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Union decline in Maryland has been uneven.\u00a0 Protected by laws allowing state and local government collective bargaining and friendly politicians, public sector unions have mostly held onto their power.\u00a0 Their density in 2016 (27.4%) was little changed from 1983 (29.9%).\u00a0 The real fall of Maryland unions has taken place in the private sector.\u00a0 In 1983, 14.4% of Maryland private sector workers were union members.\u00a0 In 2016, that share had dropped to 5.6%.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Private sector union collapse in Maryland has been broad and deep.\u00a0 Construction unions saw their density fall from 16.0% in 1983 to 12.7% in 2016.\u00a0 In the services sector, the drop was from 10.7% to 5.0%.\u00a0 And in private manufacturing, unions in Maryland have been almost obliterated.\u00a0 Union density in that sector fell from 29.2% in 1983 to a shocking 3.9% in 2016.<\/p>\n

Progressive elected officials and advocacy groups have focused on measures like minimum wage laws, sick leave laws, tax legislation, health care reform and education funding to help the working and middle classes and reverse income inequality.\u00a0 All of those things matter. \u00a0But a long-term, sustainable progressive agenda may be impossible without a healthy labor movement.\u00a0 Independent labor organizations are critical to passing good laws, holding corporations and politicians accountable and preserving the gains made by working people against constant attempts to reverse them.\u00a0 Without them, the one percent will continue their march to total domination.<\/p>\n

Disclosures: Your author holds two degrees in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University and worked for sixteen years as a strategic researcher in the labor movement.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Adam Pagnucco.\u00a0 Labor Day is the one day of the year when the press discusses one of America\u2019s great historic institutions, the labor movement. \u00a0Much of the press\u2019s discourse contains annual descriptions of labor\u2019s decline, some sympathetic and some not.\u00a0 Whatever its causes, the story is true: union influence over the economy and American … Continue reading Union Density in Maryland, 1983-2016<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[151,23],"tags":[1545,1470],"class_list":["post-8446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adam-pagnucco","category-unions","tag-adam-pagnucco","tag-unions"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4mKJE-2ce","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8446"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8453,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8446\/revisions\/8453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}