Membership in public-sector unions is thriving in Maryland as the number of residents who belong to traditional trade unions dwindles, partly because of the poor economy and the state’s union-friendly environment, experts say. Membership in construction, manufacturing and other private unions fell by 31,396 members to 117,752 from 2006 to 2010, according to data compiled by economic professors Barry Hirsch of Georgia State University and David Macpherson of Trinity University. Their data highlight the number of union workers living in each state.
The decline was more than double the number of members lost by public unions, which dipped by 14,910 members.
Although Maryland has been cutting government jobs — and therefore union members — the number of union members who work in the public sector — such as state and local government employees, teachers, and police officers — grew by nearly 4 percent to 178,331 members, and now make up more than 60 percent of the state’s union work force.
Declines in union membership among both sectors is indicative of a long-term national trend, according to Hirsch. Overall, union membership has fallen sharply since the 1980s, but the recent data show how resilient the public sector can be.
Considering Maryland’s union-friendly environment, the numbers make perfect since given the economy, said Trevor Parry-Giles, a political communication professor at the University of Maryland.
“You’re less likely to see unionization if you don’t have a growing manufacturing base,” Parry-Giles said. “It’s not as if there’s an anti-union political environment in the state like you’re seeing in Wisconsin or Ohio.”
Major union employers, such as Baltimore’s General Motors plant and the Bethlehem Steel and Bethlehem Shipbuilding plants at Sparrows Point, have closed in the last several decades.
When the economy is down, public-sector jobs provide a more stable work environment, according to Joseph Flynn, national vice president for the 4th District of the American Federation of Government Employees. AFGE membership in Maryland has even grown over the last year thanks to the Defense Department’s Base Realignment and Closure plan, he said. Hundreds of new federal workers who moved to Fort Meade and the Aberdeen Proving Ground have added to the union’s ranks.
State and local government workers are more susceptible to the squeeze of strained budgets than federal employees, but even then, there always will be some types of jobs that remain absolutely necessary, said Fred D. Mason Jr., president of the Maryland and D.C. AFL-CIO labor federation.
“Even if you bought a nice foreign car, you want well-paved local roads to drive it on,” Mason said. “Those are public sectors that handle that stuff. People don’t want to get rid of those services.”
