Union represents expanding economy

[Omaha Steve]

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/309983_middleclass03.html

OPINION

Last updated April 2, 2007 7:24 p.m. PT
Union represents expanding economy

By DOUG TWEEDY
GUEST COLUMNIST

Earlier this year, the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that the number of American workers belonging to labor unions slipped to fewer than one in eight, down from one in five a generation ago. Given the grim statistics, you might expect labor leaders to be dispirited.

However, union organizing campaigns are more aggressive than ever, targeting the fast-growing service sector and advancing the national debate over universal health care.

Here in Washington, we are bucking the national trend. Union membership increased by 26,000 workers in 2006, and union jobs are the foundation of a thriving economy that is building wealth for all residents.

Nowhere is the expanding economy more evident than in the construction industry, which experienced the second-largest growth of any economic sector, adding more than 11,000 jobs last year. Many of the new construction jobs pay family wages and offer comprehensive health care and retirement benefits. They are the kind of jobs that fulfill middle-class dreams, allowing workers to buy a home, start a family and create a financially secure future. Washington may be famous for its technology companies, but construction is often highly skilled work that can't be exported offshore.

It's easy to see why workers are joining the construction trades and other heavily unionized fields. The median wage of a union construction worker exceeds the wage of a non-union worker by $359 a week in the U.S. Union workers are more likely to have job-related heath coverage and a defined-benefit pension plan than their non-union counterparts.

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