As manufacturing bounces back from recession, unions are left behind

WASHINGTON POST:  … U.S. manufacturers have added a half-million new workers since the end of 2009, making the sector one of the few bright spots in an otherwise weak recovery. And yet there were 4 percent fewer union factory workers in 2012 than there were in 2010, according to federal survey data. On balance, all of the job gains in manufacturing have been non-union…

It used to be that factory jobs paid substantially better than other jobs in the private sector, particularly for workers who didn’t go to college. That’s less true today, especially for non-union workers in the industry, who earn salaries that are about 7 percent lower than similar workers who are represented by a union… 

The typical non-union factory worker earned less in 2011, after adjusting for inflation, than he or she did in 2009. There’s a reason why individual workers are taking these jobs nonetheless: They don’t have much leverage to demand higher salaries because there continue to be far more workers looking for manufacturing jobs than actual jobs to fill. The unemployment rate for manufacturing workers was 7.5 percent in December, according to the Labor Department…   (more)

EDITOR:  And when the economy recovers, who is going to negotiate higher wages and better benefits on behalf of the workers? 

 So long as some companies are unionized in an industry, the threat of unionization is a powerful factor in encouraging  other employers to offer similar pay and benefits.