Union membership grows in Southern California despite recession

[question everything]

September 7, 2009

Despite the recession, union membership in Southern California is on the rise, according to a study released Monday by UCLA’s Institute for Research on Labor and Employment. The institute’s fifth annual report on the state of organized labor found that, between July 2008 and June 2009 — the peak of the current recession — unions gained almost 25,000 new members in Southern California and more than 131,000 statewide. The gains follow decades of decline in union membership.

Union members still represent a minority all workers — about 18.3% of all employees in California and 17.5% in the Southern California region that includes Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, Ventura and San Bernardino counties. However, the percentage of union membership has been rising the last two years, both in California and throughout the country. Nationwide, union members represent about 12.4% of all workers. Across the country, the institute said, average hourly earnings are about $4 more for union workers than for non-union workers.

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Before celebrating Mass, Mahony blessed a sanitation truck, calling the act "a symbol of the dignity of our work." While delivering the blessing, he sprinkled the truck with holy water outside the cathedral. "Bless this truck, and those who use this truck," he said as workers in union T-shirts watched. "May they travel and use it safely, with care for the safety of others." The act was meant to symbolize the struggle of working men and women to earn a living wage, healthcare and respect in the workplace, a union official said.

-- Patrick J. McDonnell

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/09/union-memberships-grows-in-southern-california-despite-recession.html

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Could it be that union membership is growing...

Because of the recession?

The union will fight for its workers to keep their jobs...

This is always important, but especially so during hard times...

[question everything]

2. Always a possibility

The problem, of course, is scarcity of union jobs.

[Nickster]

3. That's correct. The oligarchs don't recall that they are the reason that unions are needed and why

their expansion exploded during the Great Depression. People are going to get pushed so far and then they'll start to band together to fight back, there's nothing else to stop the death spiral to the bottom as corporations take away more and more from us.

[Bozita]

4. Big ol' Labor Day K&R