Construction union membership remains steady

The AFL-CIO’s membership report released last month revealed that building trades unions did relatively well compared to other unions when it came to preserving their membership base.

There are 14 building trades unions affiliated with the AFL-CIO, and for 2003, the unions collectively lost about 9,800 members. If the International Brotherhood of Teamsters is not counted (only about 8 percent of its members work on construction work sites) the building trades gained a net of about 7,000 members last year.

The Laborers International Union was easily the top gainer among building trades unions in terms of membership, adding 31,700 members in 2003. Compared to all other unions in 2003, the Laborers membership gain was second only to Service Employees.

Over the last five years, the Bricklayers and Allied Crafts saw a net gain of 31,486 members, seventh among AFL-CIO affiliates.

Overall in 2003, the AFL-CIO organized 400,000 new members, but lost a net of 39,439 for a total of 13.1 million AFL-CIO union members.

Overall union membership (comprised of unions inside and outside the AFL-CIO) declined in 2003, dropping to 12.9 percent of the nation’s workforce, compared to 13.3 percent in 2002, according to a federal Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report earlier this year.

BLS statistics show that U.S. union membership has declined steadily since 1983, when 20.1 percent of the nation’s workforce was in a union.