Pennsylvania: State Sees Union Membership Boom
According to the Bucks County Courier Times:
Pennsylvania became the fourth-largest union state in the country in 2007 by adding enough members to surpass both New Jersey and Michigan, the U.S. Department of Labor has reported. Breaking a five-year streak of membership declines, Pennsylvania unions added 85,000 members in 2007 — enough to boost it past New Jersey and Michigan, both of which lost members last year. Whether unions help address those issues is debatable, according to Brian Johnson, policy director at the Washington D.C.-based Alliance for Worker Freedom. “In today's upwardly mobile society, unions are no longer relevant,” he said. His organization opposes collective bargaining and maintains that labor unions usurp the power of individual employees to represent themselves. It fights what he called all “pro-union and anti-worker” legislation. And while his group supports the right of employees to join a union, it doesn't support unions using their power to pressure workers into joining or forcing them to pay dues, he said...click to continue
