United States: American unionism undergoing radical transformation

More union members in services. “Unions fought and objected as much as they could” explained Gibb Surette, legal delegate for the powerful United Auto Workers (UAW), adding that “many sectors cracked.” Focused on manufacturing, unions nevertheless managed to get a foothold in services (computing, NICT, teaching, civil service…). At the heart of the Silicon Valley, California, the number of union members in the high tech sector now reaches 40% (as opposed to 12% for the national average). The Change to Win (CtoW) union, created in 2005 after a schism within the powerful AFL-CIO, and which includes the services’ union, decided to give priority to precarious and low-paid employees in the services sector. The objective is now achieved and unionization rate is going to. 36% of employees are union members in services as opposed to 7.6% in the rest of the private sector. For the first time in a long time, union membership in the US is slightly increasing, reaching 12.4% in 2008 against 12.1% in 2007, i.e. 428,000 more members in 2008 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, BLS), for a national total of 16.1 union members. According to the BLS, the new members are mostly government employees.
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union, decided to give priority to precarious and low-paid employees in the services sector. The objective is now achieved and unionization rate is going to. 36% of employees are union members in services as opposed to 7.6% in the rest of the private sector. For the first time in a long time, union membership in the US is slightly increasing, reaching 12.4% in 2008 against 12.1% in 2007, i.e. 428,000 more members in 2008 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, BLS), for a national total of 16.1 union mem

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