BLS report: a sign of the times

The Bureau of Labor Statistics issued a press release Friday indicating union membership declines during 2009.

In 2009 union membership dropped from 12.4% to 12.3%, down by 771,000 to 15.3 million.

Private sector: Down from 7.6% to 7.2%.

Public sector: Up from 36.8 to 37.4.

The upshot: for the first time ever, more public sector employees (7.9 million) belonged to a union than did private sector employees (7.4 million), although there are 5 times more wage and salary workers in the private sector.

A much needed boost for lobbyists

The Supremes have struck down campaign spending bans on corporations--the holding stuck down a prohibition against firms airing their own campaign ads, but left in place a prohibition against direct contributions to a candidate.

The next question is whether/when the same principle is applied to prohibitions against union spending. There is no legal difference between the two and I expect courts will hold now that broad bans on union spending are also unconstitutional. Unions obviously have to be careful not to use objectors' dues for political campaigns, but beyond that this appears to open the door significantly for both labor and management to pour more resources into the political process.

Just what we need...more money in politics!

Citizens United v. FEC, No. 08-205