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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mr. Whist who wrote (41542)	10/2/2000 10:36:53 AM
From: jlallen	Respond to of 769670

Which facts and figures of mine do you refer to flatulatingjock? JLA

To: Mr. Whist who wrote (41542)	10/2/2000 10:47:59 AM
From: Neocon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

From the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics: Union Members Summary Internet address: stats.bls.gov Technical information: (202) 691-6378 USDL 00-16 For release: 10:00 A.M. EST Media contact: 691-5902 Wednesday, January 19, 2000 UNION MEMBERS IN 1999 In 1999, the share of wage and salary workers who were members of unions was 13.9 percent, essentially unchanged from the prior year, the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The number of union members was 16.5 million in 1999, up slightly from 1998. Some highlights from the 1999 data are: --Government workers were four times as likely to be union members as were their private sector counterparts. --Local government workers, a group that includes police officers and firefighters, had the highest unionization rate in the public sector. --A little over one-fifth of employed black men were members of unions-- the highest unionization rate across the major demographic groups. Membership by Industry and Occupation In 1999, government workers continued to have a substantially higher unionization rate (37.3 percent) than workers in the private sector (9.4 percent). Within the public sector, local government workers had the highest unionization rate, at 42.9 percent. Among the private nonagricultural industries, the highest unionization rate occurred in transportation and public utilities (25.5 percent). Unionization rates in manufacturing (15.6 percent) and in construction (19.1 percent) were higher than the average as well. The unionization rate in maufacturing continued to decline in 1999. The nonagricultural industry with the lowest unionization rate in 1999 was finance, insurance, and real estate (2.1 percent). (See table 3.) Among the occupational groups, protective service continued to have the highest unionization rate, at 38.2 percent. Other occupational groups with higher-than-average unionization rates were professional specialty workers (19.7 percent); precision production, craft, and repair workers (22.4 percent); and operators, fabricators, and laborers (20.7 percent), many of whom work in the manufacturing industry. The unionization rate was lowest in sales occupations (4.1 percent). (See table 3.) Demographic Characteristics of Union Members Union membership continued to be higher among men (16.1 percent) than women (11.4 percent). The gap in unionization rates between the sexes has been closing; in 1983 the rate for men was 24.7 percent and the rate for women was 14.6 percent. Blacks continued to have higher unionization rates (17.2 percent) than whites (13.5 percent) and Hispanics (11.9 percent). Among the major worker groups, black men continued to have the highest union membership rate (20.5 percent), while white and Hispanic women continued to have the lowest rates (10.9 and 10.4 percent, respectively). Workers ages 35 to 64 were more likely to be union members than their younger counterparts. Full-time workers were more than twice as likely as part-time workers to be union members. (See table 1.) - 2 - Union Representation of Nonmembers About 1.7 million wage and salary workers were represented at their work place by a union in 1999, but were not union members themselves. (See table 1.) A little more than half of these workers were employed in government. (See table 3.) Earnings In 1999, union members had median usual weekly earnings of $672, compared with a median of $516 for wage and salary workers who were not represented by unions. (See table 2.) The difference reflects a variety of influences in addition to coverage by a collective bargaining agreement, including variations in the distributions of union members and non-union employees by occupation, industry, firm size, or geographic region. (For a discussion of the problem of differentiating between the influence of union status and the influence of other worker characteristics on employee earnings, see Kay E. Anderson, Philip M. Doyle, and Albert E. Schwenk, "Measuring Union-Nonunion Earnings Differences," Monthly Labor Review, June 1990, pp. 26-38.) Bureau of Labor Statistics cpsinfo@bls.gov Last modified: Thursday, January 27, 2000 URL: /news.release/union2.nr0.htm stats.bls.gov

To: Mr. Whist who wrote (41542)	10/2/2000 10:58:59 AM
From: Bill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

As a union member, you seem to know precious little about your little club.

To: Mr. Whist who wrote (41542)	10/2/2000 11:11:48 AM
From: Neocon	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769670

However, it appears to be that case that although the rate of government employee unionization is much greater, there are, in fact, more unionized workers in private industry: in '99, it was estimated that there were 9,419,000 private workers in unions, and 7,058,000 government workers. However, one can see how the confusion can set in, with the press release about the rates: stats.bls.gov

To: Mr. Whist who wrote (41542)	10/2/2000 11:20:36 AM
From: Neocon	Respond to of 769670

Looking further, it appears that if you factor out non- union "employee associations" (my wife was the president of one once, and it is definitely not a union), there may be more people unionized in government employ. Can't tell: Union Members Technical Note Technical Note The estimates in this release are obtained from the Current Population Survey (CPS), which provides the basic information on the labor force, employment, and unemployment. The survey is conducted monthly for the Bureau of Labor Statistics by the Bureau of the Census from a scientifically selected national sample of about 50,000 households. The union membership and earnings data are tabulated from one-quarter of the CPS monthly sample and are limited to wage and salary workers. Excluded are all self-employed workers. Information in this release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request. Voice phone: 202-606-5886, TDD message referral phone number: 1-800-877-8339. Reliability of the estimates Statistics based on the CPS are subject to both sampling and nonsampling error. When a sample, rather than the entire population, is surveyed, there is a chance that the sample estimates may differ from the "true" population values they represent. The exact difference, or sampling error, varies depending upon the particular sample selected, and this variability is measured by the standard error of the estimate. There is about a 90- percent chance, or level of confidence, that an estimate based on a sample will differ by no more than 1.6 standard errors from the "true" population value because of sampling error. BLS analyses are generally conducted at the 90-percent level of confidence. The CPS data also are affected by nonsampling error. Nonsampling error can occur for many reasons, including the failure to sample a segment of the population, inability to obtain information for all respondents in the sample, inability or unwillingness of respondents to provide correct information, and errors made in the collection or processing of the data. For a full discussion of the reliability of data from the CPS and information on estimating standard errors, see the "Explanatory Notes and Estimates of Error" section of the February 1994 and subsequent issues of Employment and Earnings. Definitions The principal definitions used in this release are described briefly below. Union members. Data refer to members of a labor union or an employee association similar to a union. Represented by unions. Data refer to union members, as well as workers who have no union affiliation but whose jobs are covered by a union or an employee association contract.