CRANSTON – Union membership in Rhode Island last year declined by 3,000 workers, but the state still had the second-highest membership rate in New England and the 11th highest nationwide, the R.I. Department of Labor and Training said today.
Federal data show that the share of Ocean State private- and public-sector workers who were union members declined to 15.3 percent from 2005’s 15.9 percent, the DLT said.
But regionally, that rate was second only to Connecticut’s 15.6 percent. Massachusetts was third, at 14.5 percent, followed by Maine at 11.9 percent, Vermont at 11.0 percent and New Hampshire at 10.1 percent.
Union membership increased in 2006 in two New England states: Massachusetts, which rose 0.6 percentage points, and Vermont, which gained 0.2 points.
Nationally, the union membership rate was 12.0 percent, down from 12.5 percent in 2005 and well below 1983’s 20.1 percent.
The DLT’s union membership report is based on figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ monthly Current Population Survey. Additional CPS data is available at www.bls.gov/cps. Additional DLT labor-market information is available at www.dlt.ri.gov/lmi.
