The decline of African-Americans in unions and manufacturing, 1979-2006

Introduction

 

For much of the postwar period, a higher share of African-American workers have been in unions than workers from other racial and ethnic backgrounds. As union representation and union coverage have declined for the country as a whole, unionization rates for African-Americans have fallen more quickly than for the rest of the workforce. Black workers are still about 30 percent more likely than the rest of the workforce to be in a union today, but as recently as the mid-1980s, black workers were almost 50 percent more likely to be in a union or covered by a union at their workplace.

 

Part of the reason for the decline in unionization rates among African-Americans is undoubtedly related to the decline of U.S. manufacturing. For example, since the 1960s, African-Americans were more likely to work in the heavily unionized automotive sector than white or Latino workers. As these sectors have declined in relative importance, unionization rates for blacks have also dropped. The overall decline in manufacturing, however, is only part of the problem. First, since the early 1990s, the share of black workers in manufacturing has been falling more rapidly than the manufacturing share for the workforce as a whole. From the end of the 1970s through the early 1990s, African-Americans were just as likely as workers from other racial and ethnic groups to have manufacturing jobs. Since the early 1990s, however, black workers have lost considerable ground in manufacturing.

 

By 2006, blacks were about 15 percent less likely than other workers to have a job in manufacturing. Second, even within manufacturing, unionization rates have been on the decline, to the point where manufacturing workers now are no more likely to be in a union than workers in the rest of the economy (see Schmitt and Zipperer, 2007a). Meanwhile, over the last 25 years, unionization rates have held steady in the public sector, which suggests that employer opposition to unions, not simply economic restructuring, lies behind the decline in overall unionization rates (see Schmitt and Zipperer, 2007b).

 

Findings

 

Our analysis of data from the Current Population Survey, the government's most important regular source of data on the labor market, also finds:

 

  * Between 1983 and 2006, the share of African-

    American workers who were either members of a union

    or represented by a union at their place of

    employment fell substantially, from 31.7 percent of

    all black workers in 1983 to 16.0 percent in 2006.

    In 2006, African-Americans were still more likely to

    be in a union (16.0 percent) than whites (13.3) and

    Hispanics (10.7 percent). Nevertheless, the decline

    in union membership for black workers between 1983

    and 2006 was sharper for blacks (down 15.7

    percentage points) than it was for whites (down 8.9

    percentage points) or Hispanics (down 13.5

    percentage points). (See Table 1.)

 

  * The share of African-Americans working in

    manufacturing declined from 23.9 percent in 1979 to

    10.1 percent in 2006. Whites saw slightly smaller

    declines (from 23.5 percent to 11.9 percent), while

    Hispanics experienced a bigger drop (from 30.2

    percent to 12.6 percent). (See Table 2.)

 

  * Between 1979 and 2006, the share of workers in

    auto manufacturing dropped for blacks, whites, and

    Hispanics. Blacks suffered the biggest decline, a

    0.8 percentage-point decline, from 2.1 percentage

    points in 1979 to 1.3 percentage points in 2006,

    compared to a 0.3 percentage point drop for whites

    and Hispanics. (See Table 3.)

 

  * Throughout the entire 1983-2006 period, black

    workers have made up 13-15 percent of all union

    workers. Over the same period, the share of whites

    in the total union workforce fell from 78.1 percent

    to 69.2 percent, while the share of Hispanics rose

    from 5.8 percent to 11.5 percent of all union

    workers. (See Table 4.)

 

  * Throughout the entire period from 1979 to 2006,

    the share of African-American workers in the total

    manufacturing workforce hovered around 10 percent.

    Meanwhile, white workers fell from 82.7 percent of

    all manufacturing workers in 1979 to 69.9 percent in

    2006. Hispanics (and other workers) significantly

    increased their representation in the manufacturing

    workforce over the same period (up from 6.0 percent

    of manufacturing jobs in 1979 to 14.5 percent in

    2006, for Hispanics). (See Table 5.)

 

  * In 2006, blacks made up 14.1 percent of the auto

    manufacturing workforce; whites were 73.3 percent;

    Hispanics, 7.6 percent. Between 1979 and 2006, the

    share of blacks and whites in the total auto

    manufacturing workforce both fell. The share of

    Hispanic and other workers, meanwhile, increased,

    although remained at relatively low levels. (See

    Table 6.)

 

  * Interpreting the preceding changes in the

    distribution of African-American employment and

    unionization rates can be complicated since the

    share of African-Americans and other racial and

    ethnic groups in the total workforce has changed

    over time. Tables 8, 9, and 10 show the "relative

    representation" of whites, blacks, and Hispanics in

    the total union workforce (Table 8), the total

    manufacturing workforce (Table 9), and the auto

    manufacturing workforce (Table 10). The simplest way

    to explain the calculation is with an example. To

    calculate the relative representation of African-

    Americans in the share of all union workers, we take

    the ratio of the share of African-Americans in all

    union workers (14.0 percent in 2006, in Table 4) to

    the share of African-Americans in the total

    workforce (10.8 percent in 2006, in Table 7). The

    resulting ratio is 1.30, which is greater than 1,

    indicating that African-Americans are "over-

    represented" among union workers since there is a

    larger share of African-Americans in unions than

    there is in the workforce as a whole. In the same

    year, Hispanics made up 11.5 percent of union

    workers, but 13.6 percent of the total workforce,

    resulting in a relative representation of 0.85,

    which is less than 1, indicating that Hispanics are

    "under-represented" among union workers. If a group

    has the same share of workers in unions as they do

    in the total workforce, then the ratio for relative

    representation would equal one (which is close to

    the rate for whites in 2006, 0.99).

 

  * In 2006, African-American workers were "over-

    represented" in unions (Table 8) and in auto

    manufacturing (Table 10), but are actually "under-

    represented" in manufacturing as a whole. (See Table

    9.)

 

  * The relative representation of African-Americans

    has been slowly declining in unions (Table 8),

    manufacturing (from the mid-1990s, Table 9), and

    auto manufacturing (Table 10). From the mid-1990s

    on, black workers have actually been under-

    represented in manufacturing, relative to the rest

    of the economy (Table 9). Meanwhile, white workers

    have held their ground in manufacturing (Table 9),

    and have actually increased their relative

    representation in unions (Table 8) and auto

    manufacturing. (See Table 10.)

 

John Schmitt is a senior economist and Ben Zipperer is a research assistant at the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C. Click here for a PDF version of the complete report

 

References

 

Center for Economic and Policy Research. Uniform Extracts of the Current Population Survey Outgoing Rotation Group. 2007.

 

Schmitt, John and Ben Zipperer. 2007a. "Union Rates Fall in 2006, Severe Drop in Manufacturing," Washington,

D.C.: Center for Economic and Policy Research Union Byte (January).

 

Schmitt, John and Ben Zipperer. 2007b. "Dropping the Ax:

Illegal Firings During Union Election Campaigns,"

Washington, D.C.: Center for Economic and Policy Research Briefing Paper (January).