Union membership declines in Missouri, Kansas

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

This map reflects nationwide union membership.

Labor union membership in Missouri dropped to 8.9 percent of all hourly wage and salary workers in 2012 from 10.9 percent in 2011, according to a report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Membership in Kansas declined as well, sagging to 6.8 percent in 2012 from 7.6 percent in 2011.

Nationally, union membership rates slipped, too: 11.3 percent of the nation?s workers were in a union in 2012, compared with 11.8 percent in 2011

Union membership in the Show-Me State has declined steadily since the bureau began charting the statistic in 1989. Since 2003, when membership rates began to decline below the national average, membership has fallen from 13.2 percent, the report said.

A right-to-work bill aiming to outlaw compulsory union membership and dues is being weighed in Missouri?s Republican-controlled General Assembly. Trade union leaders are not happy about what the law could do to their already shrinking numbers.

Kansas has been a right-to-work state since 1958.

Austin reports about construction, transportation, engineering and architecture.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bizj_kansascity/~3/V5xC0OGLRUA/union-membership-decline-missouri-kansas.html

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