A Geography of Self-Reported Labor Union Membership in the United States
Where have all the unions gone?
In honor of Labor Day 2021, and to adhere to our mission of democratizing data, the Cornell ILR Buffalo Co-Lab’s High Road Policy blog is pleased to share a county-level geography of labor union membership for the United States…from a non-conventional data source: the MRI-Simmons LOCAL consumer survey. The MRI-Simmons survey collects and reports data on “the robust geographic nuances” of American “consumer attitudes and lifestyle”. One cluster of questions that features in the survey instrument concerns organizational memberships. Among a host of organizational types, adult survey respondents are asked if they are active labor union members. Upon collecting responses, MRI-Simmons uses sophisticated (proprietary) geobehavioral modeling techniques to produce union membership estimates for various geographies in the United States.
Find the maps and read more here on the High Road Policy Blog.