Union Facts: Statistics on Unions and Union Organizing
Workers Want Unions: 1
- 40 million workers say they would like to join a union.
- At least 44 percent of workers would be union members today if elections were fairer.
Workers Need Unions: 2
- The purchasing power of workers' wages is 5 percent below where it stood 30 years ago.
- CEO pay has soared to more than 1,000 times the earnings of workers.
Union Facts: Workers' Rights Under Attack During Organizing Drives: 3
- 75 percent of employers hire anti-union consultants.
- 78 percent of employers force workers to attend one-on-one anti-union meetings.
- 52 percent of employers threaten to call the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
- 71 percent of employers in manufacturing threaten to close the plant if workers choose a union.
- One percent of companies actually close their plants after workers vote for a union.
- 92 percent of employers force workers to attend anti-union presentations.
- 25 percent of employers facing union organizing campaigns illegally fire at least one worker.
Union Facts: Benefits & the Union Advantage: 4
- 75 percent of union workers have health benefits, compared with 49 percent of non-union workers.
- 69 percent of union workers have short-term disability coverage, compared with 30 percent of non-union workers.
- 82 percent of union workers get life insurance, compared with 51 percent of non-union workers.
Union Facts: Wages: 5
- Union workers earn 27 percent more in median weekly wages than non-union workers.
- Unionized women earn 33 percent more than non-union women.
- African-American union workers earn 35 percent more than non-union African Americans.
- Latino union members earn 51% more than their non-union counterparts.
- Asian-American union members earn 11% more than their non-union counterparts.
Union Facts: Attacks Against Workers Have Worsened:
- In the 1950s, only a few hundred workers suffered retaliation for trying to organize a union. 6
- In 1969, the number of workers suffering retaliation was just over 6,000. 7
- Since the 1990s, 20,000 workers each year are illegally fired or discriminated against for attempting to form a union. 8
For More Union Facts Visit the Following:
1. Richard Freeman and Joel Rogers, "What Workers Want," ILR Press, 1999.
2. Jared Bernstein, Lawrence Mishel, and Chauna Brocht, "Any Way You Cut It: Income Inequality on the Rise Regardless of How It's Measured." Economic Policy Institute, Briefing Paper, September 2000.
3. Kate Bronfenbrenner, "Uneasy Terrain: The Impact of Capital Mobility on Workers, Wages, and Union Organizing." U.S. Trade Deficit Review Commission, Washington DC (2000).
4. Lawrence Mishel with Matthew Walters, "How Unions Help All Workers." Economic Policy Institute, Briefing Paper, August 2003.
5. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Employment and Earnings, U.S. Department of Labor, January 2004.
6. Human Rights Watch, "Unfair Advantage: Workers' Freedom of Association in the United States Under International Human Rights Standards," 2000.
7. "A Tale of Two Statutes: Discrimination for Union Activity Under the NLRA and RLA," 2 Employment Rights and Policy Journal 327 (1998), p. 331.
8. Roth, Kenneth. “Unfair Advantage: Workers’ Freedom of Association in the United States under International Human Rights Standards.” Human Rights Watch. Testimony before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. Page 3. June 20, 2002.
