Miss. low in union members

The percent of wage and salary workers who were members of unions in 2014 was 11.1 percent, - down 0.2 percent from 2013, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The number of union members (14.6 million) was about the same as 2013. But the drop from 1983, the first year for which comparable union data was available, was significant. In that year, the union membership rate was 20.1 percent - and 17.7 million union workers. In the four states that are part of the I-10 aerospace corridor, the 2014 rate went up slightly in three of the four; and remained the same in the other. Mississippi had the lowest membership (3.7 percent, same as in 2013). Louisiana had a union membership rate of 5.2 percent, up from 4.3 in 2013; Florida had a union membership rate of 5.7 percent, up from 5.4 in 2013; and Alabama's rate was 10.8 percent in 2014, up from 10.7 in 2013. (Source: GCAC, 01/23/15)