The AFL-CIO is pleased that the 2005 union membership numbers, released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) today, show a significant increase of 213,000 union members in the last year while union density remained steady at 12.5 percent, reversing a trend of decline in recent years as good union jobs disappeared. In a political climate that’s hostile to workers’ rights, these numbers illustrate the extraordinary will of workers to gain a voice on the job despite enormous obstacles.

The numbers also show that in 2005, the union advantage is as clear as ever. The increase in union members’ wages was double the increase in wages of non-union members in 2005 – a figure that underscores just how important union membership is to workers at a time when wages are being held flat and health care and retirement costs are being shifted from employers to employees.

Union workers earned nearly 30 percent more than workers without a union last year, and the difference was even greater among Hispanic union workers, who made a whopping 50 percent more than Hispanic non-union workers.

But despite glimmers of hope, conditions for America’s workers are still bleak. As growth in the McJobs economy and downsized pensions make unions even more important to workers, too few workers can exercise their choice to have a voice at work. Nearly five times as many workers - 57 percent - say they would join a union tomorrow as the percentage that actually has union representation.

The AFL-CIO renews its call for Congress to recognize the will of America’s workers’ to gain a voice on the job, and restore workers’ freedom to form unions by passing the Employee Free Choice Act without delay.

Contact: Steve Smith 202-637-5018