Region's unionization rate goes against statewide trends
Both public and private sectors show strength
The second week of the new Friday “special topics” series! If you know someone who is a member of a union, feel free to share this post with them. I was quite surprised by these findings myself!
With Labor Day just last Monday, this week I wanted to write about unions. Since the 1940s when Kaiser Steel came to Fontana, unions have held a special place in the region, and our identity continues to be shaped by the labor movement today. Over 67% of the region’s 240 thousand public sector workers (local, state, and federal government employees) are covered by a collective bargaining agreement. Further, about 17% of its private sector workers are covered, which is about 10 percentage points higher than the national average and 7 percentage points higher than California overall. Combined, about one quarter of the region’s non-agricultural workforce is covered by a union.
More importantly, the Inland Empire goes against the grain in unionization trends. For a variety of reasons, most of the state of California is experiencing declining unionization rates, but that’s not true here. In 2005, about 19% of all workers were covered. In 2020, it’s 25%. Compare that to the Los Angeles metro area: in 2005 16.2% of workers were covered and today that’s 13%.
Data are from unionstats.com, which sources its data from the Current Population Survey.
The downward trend in unionization rates seen in L.A. can also be seen in the San Diego and Bakersfield metro areas. Even San Francisco has seen a decline from 18% to 15% between 2005 and 2020.
These statistics reflect an extraordinary amount of work that goes into organizing.