Immigrant Union Membership Grew 30 Percent in Last Decade

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2007/08/30/immigrant-union-membership-grew-30-percent-in-last-decade/

Immigrant Union Membership Grew 30 Percent in Last Decade

by James Parks, Aug 30, 2007

Much of the growth in the union movement over the past decade has been due to an influx of immigrant workers. The number of immigrant workers who are union members grew by 30 percent from 1996 to 2006. At the same time, the number of native-born union members decreased by some 9 percent.

A new analysis of census data by the Migration Information Source shows in 2006, foreign-born immigrants made up 15 percent of the U.S. workforce and 12.3 percent (1.9 million) of union members. Nearly one in 10 foreign-born workers was a union member in 2006.

The analysis found that the percentages of foreign-born workers in all sectors of the economy have increased since 2003. In that three year-period, for example, the percentage of immigrant workers in construction jumped from 21.5 percent to 26.9 percent and in agriculture-related industries from 32.7 percent to 34.5 percent.

FULL story at link.