Union membership in utilities increases 8.4%, wages up 7.1% in 2010

Union membership in U.S. utilities increased 8.4% in 2010 over the previous year, says the Bureau of Labor Statistics latest report (see below) on union membership released January 21, 2011. The data does not breakdown membership among the various utility segments.

Union membership climbed from 237,000 in 2009 to 257,00 in 2010 (Table 3 BLS 2010 Union Membership Report), while total employment in utilities rose from 906,000 to 909,000 during the same period.  Union members now comprise 28.3% of the utility workforce, up from 26.1% in 2009.  When the total number of employee represented by unions are counted, the percentage of union representation is even higher.  In 2010, 30.3% of all utility employees were represented by unions compared to 28.3% in 2009. 

Utility employees are bucking the national trend.  Union membership nationally declined last year by 612,000.  Nationally, 14.7 million workers were union members, representing 11.9% of the workforce, down from 12.3% in 2009. 

At over 30 percent unionization, the utility workforce closely resembles the public sector and ranks as the highest rate of unionization among all industries in the private sector.  The public sector workforce is substantially more unionized than the private sector, 36.2% compared to 6.9% in 2010. 

For utilities with high union membership wishing to control labor costs, think again.  Annual wages for union members increased 7.1% in 2010 compared with only 0.6% for non-union members (Table 4).  Wages for union workers continue to outpace their non-union counterparts.  The union wage premium (union wages compared to non-union wages) was 11.1% in 2009 and 18.2% in 2010.  In other words, union member wages were 18.2% higher than non-union wages in 2010.  Looking from the other side of the coin, the non-union wage discount was 10% in 2009 and 15.4% in 2010.