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new report released Jan. 27 by the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) indicates that from 2010 to 2011, 874,000 workers in the private construction industry belonged to a union, the second lowest number of construction union members since BLS started tracking this information in 1973.
According to BLS data, the lowest recorded number of union members in the construction industry was in 2010, when only 801,000 private construction workers belonged to a union. In 2011, there were 6.244 million workers in the construction industry and 5.375 million of them (86 percent) were not union members. From 2010 to 2011, union membership grew from 13.1 percent to 14 percent of the U.S. private construction workforce, with construction unions adding 73,000 more members compared to 2010.
“Despite a slight uptick this year, because of the gradual decline in overall construction union membership, high unemployment in the construction industry, and election-year political posturing, there likely will be added pressure on labor-friendly politicians and the Obama administration to try to steer federal construction contracts to unionized employers and create jobs primarily for union members through federal government-mandated project labor agreements (PLAs) and other anti-competitive and costly measures,” said Ben Brubeck, ABC National’s Director of Labor and Federal Procurement.
“In response, ABC will continue to make every effort to create a level playing field and maximize competition by prohibiting government-mandated PLAs at the federal , state, and local level, and educate elected officials about the detrimental effects PLA mandates have on the construction industry and on taxpayers,” said Brubeck.
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