Union membership represents only 4.5 percent of Louisiana's workforce, far below the national average of 11.8 percent. Union participation in the Pelican State climbed slightly last year, but the small gain still leaves Louisiana with the fifth lowest percentage of union workers in the country.
According to a report from The Times-Picayune, union membership climbed to 4.5 percent of the state's workforce in 2011, up from the record low of 4.3 percent in 2010.
The data, compiled by the U.S. Census Bureau's Current Population Survey, ranks only four other states with lower union percentages than Louisiana: North Carolina, 2.9 percent; South Carolina, 3.4 percent; Georgia, 3.9 percent; and Arkansas, 4.2 percent:
Louisiana fell far below the natural average in this year's count. Nationwide, union members made up 11.8 percent of the workforce, a negligible decrease from 2010, when 11.9 percent of that population were counted as belonging to a union.
Unions.org, a website that serves the union workforce and manages union databases online, reports that more than 45 unions represent roughly 107,000 workers in Louisiana.
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