US DATA: BLS 2011 union membership report says membership rate was
11.8 percent, essentially unchanged from 11.9 percent in 2010. The
number of wage and salary workers belonging to unions, at 14.8 million,
also showed little movement over the year. In 1983, the first year for
which comparable union data are available, the union membership rate was
20.1 percent and there were 17.7 million union workers.