Union Membership Down, Government Concerned

Union membership dropped last year, and Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis is not happy about it.

The unionization rate of employed wage and salary workers was 11.9 percent, down from 12.3 percent in 2009. Among private sector employees, the rate dropped to 6.9 percent from 7.2 percent in 2009, according to the recently released Bureau of Labor Statistics' annual "Union Members – 2010" report.

In addition, the report also shows that the median usual weekly earnings of full-time wage and salaried union members totaled $917 per week, compared to $717 for workers not represented by unions. For Latinos, the wage disparity is even more dramatic, with union members earning an average of $771 compared to $512 for workers not represented by unions, a difference of 33.6 percent.