Attacks on unions disproportionately hurt Black workers

From [HERE] The attack on public-sector workers in New Jersey, Ohio, Wisconsin and other states is especially threatening to blacks.

While all workers stand to lose if this assault on long-established labor rights succeeds, African American workers are much more likely than other Americans to be public workers and to belong to a union.

One out of every five blacks is employed in the public sector, according to a recent report by economist Steven Pitts of the University of California at Berkeley. This contrasts with one out of every six white workers and one out of every 10 Latino workers.

The public sector – including police officers, firefighters, nurses, social workers, clerical staff, janitors, food-service personnel, professors and more – is the No. 1 employer of black men and the second-highest employer of black women.

Blacks, Pitts notes, are also much more likely to be members of a union than any other racial or ethnic group, as 15 percent currently are union members while only 11 percent of whites belong to a union.

African Americans have also enjoyed better wages as union members and are much more likely to have access to health care by being in a union, according to a 2008 report by the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

The attack by Republican governors to smash public sector unions is particularly disturbing because it is occurring at a time when unemployment remains extremely high: 8.9 percent for the entire population, and more than 15 percent for blacks. If some governors have their way, both of those figures are likely to go up.

That’s why it’s so important for blacks – and all workers – to become engaged in this issue and join the protests.

We need to remember that Martin Luther King Jr. spent his very last day on Earth defending the rights of public-sector workers. We should follow in his footsteps.