South By North Strategies, Ltd.

The Center on Economic and Policy Research analyzes the latest national union membership data and looks at the decline that occurred in 2010.

After a few years of small gains, union membership tumbled in 2010. Over 2009 and 2010, the Great Recession helped to reduce union rolls by more than 1.3 million members. In the absence of federal support for state and local governments, public sector cutbacks will continue to depress the overall union membership rate. Absent changes to labor law, offsetting increases in the private sector are unlikely.

In related news, The News & Observer reported that North Carolina continued to have the nation’s lowest rate of unionization. Lat year, just 3.2 percent of Tar Heel workers belonged to a union.