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Via CtW Connect comes this glimmer of hope from the Bureau of Labor Statistics:

In 2007, the number of workers belonging to a union rose by 311,000 to 15.7 million, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Union members accounted for 12.1 percent of employed wage and salary workers, essentially unchanged from 12.0 percent in 2006. In 1983, the first year for which comparable union data are available, the union membership rate was 20.1 percent. (read the full press release)

That paragraph contains hope as well as a reminder of what’s been lost over the past quarter century. What’s been lost is obvious, and those losses seem to have been ongoing over the past 50 years, as union membership has shrunk from its high point of 32.5% in 1953. Still the hope, fragile as it may be, is especially real in a year when we have the opportunity to elect a new leader who may actually have our interests at heart (instead of the interests of out-of-touch corporate masters).

Let’s not forget how much of the decline in union membership has been directly related to the dramatic tilting of the scales that’s occurred over the past 30 years, thanks to both Republican and Democratic policy changes.

We need accountability at all levels, whether at the union hall, the boardroom, city hall, the state house or the White House. Getting involved, on all levels, is the only way to make our leaders more accountable. It’s also the only way to let them know we want free and fair access to collective bargaining rights in this country.

Just something to keep in mind, especially as the 2008 election campaign heads toward the home stretch.

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Filed under: unionism

In the first couple weeks since they took office, our three new executive board members have made several appearances at the UPS Willow Grove hub. People have been expressing an optimism about the future of our Union and the prospect of new representation, but I’d like to remind all of our members that we are the Union.

Now is not the time to sit back and wait for someone else to bail us out of the way we’ve been treated by management. Better representation starts with us, not just the Business Agents and Stewards, but with each and every member. Get involved and learn more about how to stand up for your own rights. That’s the best way to make sure you’re being represented properly.

In a week we’ll all have a great opportunity to get involved, when we meet for our first general membership meeting of 2008. All members should come out to the Union Hall on Sunday, January 20. The meeting begins at 10:30 am.

New representation holds promise for all of us, but an overflowing Union Hall next Sunday would be an even more promising sign.

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Filed under: Teamsters Local 384, events and meetings, solidarity, unionism