Mass. Union Membership Up In 2009
The total number of unionized workers in Massachusetts rose in 2009, even as the workforce as a whole shrank, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
According to the BLS numbers, in 2008, 15.7 percent of the state’s workers belonged to a union. In 2009, the figure was 16.6 percent. More strikingly, the total number of unionized employees rose from 458,000 to 476,000 even as employment fell from 2.91 million to 2.86 million.
Tim Sullivan, legislative and communications director for the state AFL-CIO, said that although some highly unionized fields — notably manufacturing — have lost jobs in the recession, many like health care and education are doing relatively well.
But Brian Gilmore, executive vice president of the Associated Industries of Massachusetts, said he thinks the increase in union membership mostly reflects the public sector. He said public employees who are not already union members may be moving to organize because of concerns about budget cutbacks and layoffs.
Nationally, the BLS said, this is the first year that public-sector union members have outnumbered their private sector counterparts.
Sullivan said the biggest union organizing victory of 2009 was workers from several hospitals in the Boston-area Caritas Christi system joining the Service Employees International Union 1199.
The workers voted to join the union after the hospital agreed not to try to influence employees against the organizing effort.
Harris Gruman, the executive director of the SEIU Massachusetts State Council, said the agreement shows the way that employers and workers can work together for everyone’s benefit.
Unions “actually often decrease labor-management tension because it gives the workers an organized voice and that means you can work out something that’s in the interest of both parties,” he said.
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