Fallout From Labor’s Falling Numbers
You’d be hard pressed to miss the news that organized labor suffered one of its largest one-year losses in membership in years. While the AFL-CIO is out spinning, our executive director, Rick Berman, weighed in at the Washington Examiner:
“The continued decline of union membership, even during four years of a labor-friendly administration, is a sign that organized labor is no longer serving the best interests of its members.”
The updated membership number is 11.3 percent of the total workforce—the lowest it’s been since the 1930s. In 34 states, union membership tumbled. Among those is Michigan, which has yet to feel the effect from becoming a right-to-work state.
States Start Sessions With Labor Reform Proposals
Across the country, state governments are starting their legislative sessions and are filing bills that would reform labor law. Pennsylvania lawmakers will be mulling a package of reforms, including right-to-work. Colorado is doing the same. Even Kansas, already a right-to-work state, is looking at labor law changes: Its legislators are looking at a public sector union paycheck protection bill.
