Labor Day used to be more than a summer-closing holiday; it was a celebration of labor unions and the American labor movement. That’s easy to forget these days because labor unions don’t have much to celebrate. At the height of their influence in the 1950s, labor unions could claim to represent about 1 of every 3 American workers. Today, it’s 1 in 9 — and falling. Some have seen the shrinking size and waning influence of labor unions as a sign that the US economy is growing more flexible and dynamic, but there’s mounting evidence that it is also contributing to slow wage growth and the rise in inequality. It’s really a tale of two sectors, the public and the private. Public-sector unions — meaning those that represent local, state, and federal government employees — have been pretty stable. In 1983, about 37 percent of public sector workers were in unions. Today, it is 35 percent. Private sector unions have been decimated. Their membership numbers fell nearly 60 percent since 1983, partly in response to globalization and partly as a result of various legal changes that have curtailed unions’ ability to organize.
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