Union Membership Drops to Record Low

The latest membership statistics have to be "incredibly discouraging for labor," said Gary Chaison, a labor specialist at Clark University in Worcester, Mass.

"Before they can grow, they have to stand still," he said. "The unions are losing so many members each year because their jobs are being outsourced and they are organized in shrinking sectors of the economy, like autos, steel and textiles."

The pressures on organized labor led to a split starting in the summer of 2005, with more than a half-dozen unions breaking free of the AFL-CIO. The breakaway unions cited the need for more emphasis on organizing, though the split was also caused by power struggles and personality disputes among union leaders.

Much of the recent union recruitment has focused on industries unlikely to lose jobs overseas _ like the hotel industry, health care and service workers.

The continuing erosion of union membership is "just another sign of the collapse of the middle class," said David Gregory, a professor of labor law at St. John's University Law School.

"Health and medical insurance coverage and retirement pension security were the result of decades of work of the labor unions," he said. "I think we're going to dramatically see the cutting away of the safety net for workers."

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On the Net:

Bureau of Labor Statistics: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.toc.htm