Mass AFL-CIO President lauds Massachusetts positive growth in union membership in 2011

Mass AFL-CIO President lauds Massachusetts positive growth in union membership in 2011

New state AFL-CIO President Steven Tolman says it shows benefits of job creation and the need for much more of it

MALDEN, MA JANUARY 27, 2012…Massachusetts AFL-CIO President Steven Tolman found reasons for optimism in the recently-released Bureau of Labor statistics report, showing that Massachusetts has achieved an increase in union membership after having suffered a decline from 2009 to 2010 associated with the Great Recession.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there was an increase of 49,000 union members nationally in 2011. The data released on January 27^th shows Massachusetts to be one of 19 states with union growth, with the number of union-organized workers in Massachusetts rising from 14.5% in 2010 to 14.6% in 2011. Prior to the recession, Massachusetts had increased union membership from 2007 to 2009. The increase of 7,000 union workers in 2011 marked a return to that trend.

In a statement, Massachusetts AFL-CIO President Steven Tolman offered this assessment:

“The labor movement has been beating the jobs, jobs, jobs drum for years now, and it is good to see positive direction in putting people back to work. It is even more positive that more workers are securing jobs that come with the good wages, benefits and protections of union membership. This proves that as the economy begins to grow again the labor movement will rebound as well. In order for the middle class to begin growing again, however, workers need to continue to join unions in droves and band together to fight for fairness and equity and a strong middle class.”

The Bureau of Labor Statistics attributed much of the increase nationally to a recovering economy. Contrary to much of the anti-public employee, “big government” discourse sentiment sweeping the country in 2011, it was the private sector that experienced an increase in union membership by 110,000 nationally, and the public sector declining in union membership by 61,000. Still, private sector union density remains at 6.9-percent nationally. This shows an incredible need for more private sector job creation at union wages and benefits. There is hope in Massachusetts of this very kind of growth with recently-passed expansion of gaming legislation in Massachusetts, and for more economic stimulus and workforce development pending at the state level.