Striking the unions

Labor | A union-sponsored work stoppage turns into a protest of organized labor | Megan Basham

Tom Tingle/The Arizona Republic/AP

PHOENIX—Times are tough for labor unions. They may have seen a small increase in enrollment last year—the first in 25 years—but that was almost entirely attributed to new federal, state, and city hires rather than private sector employees deciding to organize or join an existing union. Overall, membership is in steep decline. While union workers made up 20 percent of the national job force in the early 1980s, today that number has dropped to just 12.4 percent, with some experts pinning the cause on a mistrust of union representation among young professionals.

Big labor's efforts to revitalize private sector unionization, such as the so-called "card check" bill that would do away with secret ballots and force businesses to abide by federal arbiters' decisions when an agreement can't be reached, appear to be alienating the public. Gallup's most recent survey found that only 48 percent of Americans approve of unions, an all-time low that is down from 59 percent a year ago. More alarming perhaps for labor leaders, the portion of the population saying that unions hurt the economy rather than help it has risen from about a third in 2006 to more than half today.