Union strength grows in Oregon

By Greg Stiles

of the Mail Tribune

While employment has declined
in Oregon, the percentage of
workers who are union
members has grown,
according to a U.S.
Bureau of Labor Statics
report released this month.


Although union membership dropped
slightly to 250,000 in 2009 from 259,000
in 2008, union membership rose to 17
percent last year from 16.6 percent in 2008.

Another 22,000 workers were represented
by unions, although they weren't members.
The highest percentage of union membership
on record in Oregon was 21.6 percent in 1989.

Oregon ranked No. 11
out of the 50 states
and District of Columbia
for union membership

percentage.

New York topped the list
with 25.2 percent of its
wage and hourly workers
belonging to unions.

Hawaii followed with
23.5 percent;
Alaska, 22.3 percent; and
Washington, 20.2 percent.
California was
No. 10 at 17.2 percent.

"The West tends to be heavily unionized,"
said David Kong, a statistician with BLS in San Francisco.

Nationally, the number of workers belonging
to a union dropped by 771,000 to 15.3 million
in 2009, reflecting declining employment overall
in the country. Union members accounted for
12.3 percent of employed wage and salary
workers, essentially unchanged from 12.4
percent a year earlier.

In 1983, the first year for which comparable
national union data were available, the union
membership rate was 20.1 percent. The BLS
reported Oregon has had union membership
rates above the U.S. average since 1989.

In the second quarter of 2009, Oregon ranked
No. 25 in average weekly wages, according to
the latest figures compiled by the BLS.

Oregon's latest unemployment figure remains
above 10 percent and Jackson County's
jobless rate is above 11 percent.

While mining, logging and manufacturing areas
have been hard-hit by job losses, public sector
employment dropped less than 1 percent, Kong said.

"The employment pie has gotten smaller,
but the decrease in the public sector hasn't
been as much as the private sector," Kong said.

While the West Coast, as well as Alaska and
Hawaii, have higher union membership, southeastern
states were on the low end: North Carolina, 3.1 percent;
Arkansas, 4.2 percent; South Carolina, 4.5 percent;
Georgia, 4.6 percent; Virginia, 4.7 percent; and
Mississippi, 4.8 percent.

Reach reporter Greg Stiles at 776-4463 or
e-mail business@mailtribune.com