In Washington state, the number of union members climbed 26,000 in 2006 to an estimated 549,000, and the state's union membership rate jumped to 19.8%, up from 19.1% in 2005, according to an annual report released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics.  With that increase, Washington state moves from 6th to 5th highest in the nation in terms of the unionization rates.  Only Hawaii, New York, Alaska and New Jersey, in that order, have higher rates.

But the overall U.S. unionization rate continued to decline in 2006: 12.0% of wage and salary workers were union members, down from 12.5 % in 2005.  Union membership nationwide for 2006 was 15.4 million, a decline of 326,000 from 15.7 million in 2005.  The national unionization rate has steadily declined from a high of 20.1% in 1983, the first year for which comparable union data are available.

Note: The DOL news release on union membership statistics and related details are posted at http://www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.toc.htm 

"While I'm very encouraged that more workers in Washington state have organized to gain a voice at work and win strong union contracts, this news about declining national membership is another troubling sign that America's middle class is struggling," said Rick Bender, President of the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO.  "It's bad news for all workers, not just union members, when fewer of us have a contract to protect our living standards from being eroded away."

He said the factors that have contributed to the national decline include the outsourcing of good American jobs, the decline of America's once-powerful manufacturing sector and the enormous difficulty workers face when trying to form or join unions to improve their lives.

A recent survey by Peter D. Hart Research Associates shows that the public support of unions is at a 25-year high -- 65% approve of unions while only 25% disapprove.  More than half of all workers say they would join a union today if given the chance.  According to Thursday's Department of Labor report, full-time wage and salary workers who were union members in 2006 had median usual weekly earnings of $833, compared with a median of $642 for wage and salary workers who were not represented by unions.

The biggest obstacle, Bender said, is that "too many unscrupulous employers routinely fire, harass and intimidate workers who express interest in joining unions -- even though that's supposed to be illegal."

Cornell University's Kate Bronfenbrenner studied hundreds of organizing campaigns, and found:

• When faced with employees who want to join together in a union, 92 percent of private-sector employers force employees to attend closed-door meetings to hear anti-union propaganda; 80 percent require supervisors to attend training sessions on attacking unions; and 78 percent require that supervisors deliver anti-union messages to workers they oversee.

• 75 percent hire outside consultants to run anti-union campaigns, often based on mass psychology and distorting the law.

• Half of employers threaten to shut down partially or totally if employees join a union.

• In 25 percent of organizing campaigns, private-sector employers illegally fire workers because they want to form a union.

• Even after workers successfully form a union, in one-third of the instances, employers never negotiate a contract.

To help restore workers' freedom to choose whether they want to unionize, historic legislation called the Employee Free Choice Act will be re-introduced in the new Congress and its passage is the AFL-CIO's top priority. The EFCA would level the playing field for workers and employers, and help rebuild America’s middle class. It would restore workers’ freedom to choose a union by:

• Establishing stronger penalties for violation of employee rights when workers seek to form a union and during first-contract negotiations.

• Providing mediation and arbitration for first-contract disputes.

• Allowing employees to form unions by signing cards authorizing union representation.

Last year, the EFCA was co-sponsored by 215 U.S. Representatives and 44 Senators. From Washington state, both Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, plus Reps. Jay Inslee, Rick Larsen, Brian Baird, Norm Dicks, Jim McDermott and Adam Smith, co-sponsored the EFCA.

"The right to organize is a fundamental right of workers in this country," said Rep. Smith. "It was the stepping stone to other such basic rights as overtime pay, benefits, livable wages, safe working conditions, and the 40-hour work week. Since the 1930s however, the system has been grossly diluted and manipulated in favor of the employer. The Employee Free Choice Act provides much needed reforms to the flawed labor law that currently regulates organized labor and binds the National Labor Relations Board to an unprecedented and long overdue commitment to the rights of employees and union organizers. I look forward to working with my colleagues to push this valuable legislation through Congress."