Unions Try to Organize White Collar Workers

The Las Vegas Sun reports:

Unionizing success stories are rare in the modern labor movement — and even rarer in the private sector.

Victories, however marginal, have come in the public sector, with government workers accounting for the bulk of the gains. Just 7.6 percent of American workers in the private sector belong to unions, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s down from a high of 24 percent in 1973.

Labor experts say that unions, now more than ever, must try harder to connect with white-collar and high-tech workers to remain relevant in a rapidly changing economy, and they point to the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers as a model.

The union, which is holding its national convention this week in Las Vegas, represents 100,000 workers in the United States and Canada, and its organizing campaigns are changing the face of American labor.