Government Union Membership and Political Power

Is there a connection?

Mike Antonucci, Education Intelligence Agency, sees a relationship between a state’s political leanings and government union membership.  These figures include teachers as well as other government employees.   

Researchers Barry Hirsch of Georgia State University and David Macpherson of Trinity University . . . examine the [Bureau of Labor Statistics] BLS source statistics from the Current Population Survey and disaggregate them by state, metropolitan area and occupation. They post the results on their web site — unionstats.com. 

As the sample sizes from the survey get smaller, their accuracy is reduced. But we can still learn a great deal about unionization trends in the states from the work of Hirsch and Macpherson.