As wages stagnate, as companies cut back on health insurance and pensions and as work hours grow longer, more and more workers want a voice on the job with a union.

There were 16.1 million union members in the United States in 2008. The AFL-CIO represents 11 million working men and women, including 2.5 million members in Working America, its new community affiliate.

Independent polling shows that as many as 60 million workers in America want to have a union in their workplace—but few ever get that chance because employers routinely block workers’ efforts to improve their lives through unions. Increasingly, elected leaders, community groups and religious leaders are demanding that companies stop breaking the law and hindering workers’ efforts to form unions.

Percentage of Workers Who Belong to Unions, 1995-2008
Membership as a Percentage of Wage and Salary Workers

Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics.