Connecticut union membership at lowest level in 2 decades

By Luther Turmelle
lturmelle@nhregister.com / Twitter: @lutherturmelle

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The number of organized Connecticut workers as a percentage of the total work force in 2012 hit its lowest level in more than two decades, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Fourteen percent of all Connecticut workers were union members, down from 16.8 percent in 2011 and from 17.3 percent as recently the as 2009. In 1995, the figure was 20.2 percent.

Nationally, the percentage of organized workers continued its 23-year decline in 2012, hitting 11.3 percent. It was 11.8 percent in 2011.

Lori Pelletier, secretary and treasurer of the Connecticut AFL-CIO, said the labor statistics at both the state and national levels are indicative of the ongoing struggle for economic recovery.

?Certainly, as Connecticut is trying to recover ... people are retiring and employers aren?t filling those positions,? Pelletier said. ?Nationally, workers who are looking to unionize are facing significant push back from employers, with $8 billion presently spent fighting workers who want to unionize.?

Larry Dorman, a spokesman for Council 4 of AFSCME, said the decline ?highlights the painful fact that people are working harder and harder for less and less.?

He said Council 4?s membership, the second largest in the state after the Connecticut Education Association, is down 9 percent in the last two years and the losses would have been worse if state workers hadn?t agreed to concessions as a part of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy?s state budget process a year and half ago .

?This does not bode well for our economic recovery or for Connecticut?s middle class,? Dorman said. ?The state is not hiring people and both state and local governments are managing (using) attrition.

?There is an incredible ideological assault going on against unions in Indiana and Michigan over right-to-work laws that is driving down the standard of living for workers.?

While neither Pelletier nor Dorman believe that right-to-work legislation would be approved in Connecticut, it won?t be for a lack of trying. Continued...

?There are 20 bills currently being put forth by the Connecticut legislature that are similar to right-to-work statutes in other states,? Pelletier said. ?We?re working to explain what these bills mean to legislators. Right-to-work states have more dependency on social services because workers aren?t making a living wage.?

Dorman said union leaders are proposing legislation that would establish a task force to investigate the feasibility of the state creating a defined benefit plan for low-income private sector workers who do not have access to an employer-sponsored retirement plan.

The plan labor wants to investigate calls for allowing private sector workers to contribute a certain percentage of their annual salary to a state-administered retirement savings trust, similar to what state workers now have, he said.

?I know some people love to whine and moan about Connecticut?s public employees? pensions,? Dorman said. ?But public pensions create thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in economic activity that the state wouldn?t otherwise have.?

A similar bill was approved last year by the state?s House of Representatives, but died in the Senate at the end of the legislative session, he said.

Donald Klepper-Smith, chief economist at DataCore Partners in New Haven, said the state?s labor unions, in both the private and public sector, are an important factor in the cost of doing business.

?Research shows ... long-term job growth is a function of the cost of doing business and unions artificially elevated the cost of labor,? he said.

The declining percentage of union members in Connecticut ?is reflective of an underlying tension? in the state?s economy, he said. ?Each individual when considering joining a union has to assess what do they stand to gain versus what do they stand to lose,? Klepper-Smith asserted. ?And you?re going to get a different answer with every individual.?

David Cadden, a management professor, said that historically speaking, unions have been responsible for important gains for both members and non-members alike.

?They are behind the development of child labor laws and the creation of a 40-hour work week,? Cadden said. While there have been declines in the number of union members among public employees and manufacturing workers, Cadden expects to see growth in organizing among retail workers and in other service industries. Continued...

Call Luther Turmelle at 203-789-5708.

Source: http://nhregister.com/articles/2013/01/30/news/doc510958f619e62204280607.txt

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