Pennsylvania unions bucked a national trend of stagnant
growth this year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
University of Pittsburgh Professor James Craft,
with the Katz Graduate School of Business, credited the state's 50,000 new
members to recent unionization in health care, food service and retail markets,
as well as a local push to organize university and college faculty.
More than 800,000 Pennsylvanians belong to a union,
according to 2015 labor data.
The report relied on data collected by the Census
Bureau’s population survey, which provides basic information on the labor
force. Nationally, the number of workers represented by a union did not change
from 2014, but in Pennsylvania, the percentage of workers in the state
represented by a labor union grew from 13.7 to 14.4 percent.
The country is experiencing a transformation in the way
work is done, Craft said. The way unions follow that trend will determine union
viability in the country, he said.
“There’s been increased emphasis by unions on organizing
employees, particularly in emerging and growing industries which are typically
low-pay industries,” he said.
Craft said, historically, workers unionized to join the
middle class and have a family-sustaining job. Now workers often unionize for
stability in the job itself, he said.
“Maybe some potential increases in pay, which they are
not getting through increases in minimum wage," he said.
Source: WESA.FM
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