Union Membership Declines In The US

Union Membership in the United has fallen by 400,000 members from 2011 to 2012.   In terms of the entire labor force, the percentage of union members has fallen from 11.8% to 11.3%, primarily because state governments have laid off employees.   This is significant because union membership in the private sector is only 6.6% of the labor force, down from 6.9%.   The reality is, why should anyone living in a right to work state pay dues to a union when most of the issues that caused the formation of unions, more than 100 years ago, have all been codified into law.  

And now with ObamaCare, ironically eventually unions members too will have to conform to a lower level of health care benefits, regulated by law, rather than the Cadillac Plans they now have, at little or no costs; otherwise, they will be taxed on the higher level plans.   Most union growth has been in the Public Sector, with Teachers in particular, being among the largest labor unions in the country.   While this Blogger has no problem with unions in the private sector because they are self regulating in that if demands for higher wages and benefits are too extreme, the jobs go away, one way or another.   Public Sector Unions, however, are contributing to the bankruptcy of the United States and therefore collective bargaining in the Public Sector is not consistent with the national interests and should be ended. 

Even Socialist President Franklin Roosevelt opposed the notion of collective bargaining for Public Sector employees knowing that it would lead to the electoral corruption we now have with Public Sector Unions supporting Socialist candidates to allow them all to continue feeding at the trough.   It is a vicious circle of corruption. 

Unions in the private sector are in a panic because their numbers keep falling.  As a result, they are trying desperately to unionize Wal Mart, the nation's largest employer, which would be very bad for our economy.  It is the poor and Middle Class, Obama is always talking about, that rely most on Wal Mart's low prices.   If unions were to succeed in their demands for higher wages and benefits for Wal Mart employees, thereby driving up Wal Mart's prices, it will be at the expense of the poor and Middle Class.   Wal Mart line employee are generally under educated with little or no job skills.   They are being paid commensurate with their capabilities.   While it may seem heartless, to pay them more, which would drive up prices, represents a market distortion that makes no sense. 

Unions were once essential to gain worker rights that over the years have been codified by law.   For the most part today, at least in the United States, there is little need for unions; hence the reason they are declining in size, except in the Public Sector where they can still exert corrupt influence on our elections.   This has to change if we are ever going to end Obama's Trillion dollar plus annual deficit spending and pay off our National Debt.  Otherwise, we will face the economic collapse of the United States and the calamity that will follow.   We can't let that happen.