Union rolls jump in ‘08; Georgia defies U.S. trend

The American labor movement saw its largest gain in membership last year, the first time since the government began tracking union activity in 1983.

The ranks of union workers grew to 12.4 percent, even as companies deleted 2.6 million jobs from their payrolls. The increase mainly came from government workers whose membership rate grew to 36.8 percent from 35.9 percent in 2007.

Despite last year’s growth, union membership overall is nowhere near its peak of the 1950s, when about 35 percent of U.S. workers belonged to unions.

The labor movement, which has been in retreat for decades, could get a boost if a new card check bill, known as the Employee Free Choice Act, were enacted by Congress, some employment law experts say. It would give workers the option of signing a card or petition instead of holding secret ballot elections.

“There’s no more or less concern [about unions] for employers now than five or 10 years ago,” said James Walters, a partner with the Atlanta law firm of Fisher & Phillips. “Obviously, the Free Choice Act would change the landscape.”

In Georgia, the number of workers belonging to unions has dropped by about 86,000 since 2000. In fact, Georgia has one of the lowest rates of membership in the country, 3.7 percent, second only to North Carolina.

Richard Ray, president of the state AFL-CIO, the umbrella organization for unions, estimates that Georgia’s union rolls lost about 4,000 members with the Ford and General Motors plant closings in recent years.

“That’s big numbers when you shut down auto plants,” he said. “When you lose big plants and you don’t have another major workplace [organizing effort], we have a net loss.”

Here’s a comparison of union membership in Georgia and the nation: