New York Union Membership Fell by 96,000 in 2016, Data Shows

 

By James T. Madore

Unions in New York State lost 96,000 members last year, a reversal of the increase recorded between 2014 and 2015, new federal data show.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported last week that the ranks of private-sector and government unions in the state totaled 1.9 million in 2016, a drop of 5 percent from a year earlier.

The bureau did not release data for Long Island and the state’s other regions. But labor historian Lillian Clayman, an instructor at SUNY Old Westbury, said on Friday there are about 250,000 union members in Nassau and Suffolk counties.

The statewide decline in union membership is part of a long-term trend, with the exceptions of increases between 2014 and 2015, when unions added 58,000 members, and between 2012 and 2013, when 145,000 were added.

Click here for the full article. 

Source: Newsday (via The Empire Report)