<P> The percentage of workers belonging to a union (or "density") in the United States peaked in 1954 at almost 35% and the total number of union members peaked in 1979 at an estimated 21.0 million . Membership has declined since, with private sector union membership beginning a steady decline that continues into the 2010s, but the membership of public sector unions grew steadily . </P> <P> After 1960 public sector unions grew rapidly and secured good wages and high pensions for their members . While manufacturing and farming steadily declined, state - and local - government employment quadrupled from 4 million workers in 1950 to 12 million in 1976 and 16.6 million in 2009 . Adding in the 3.7 million federal civilian employees, in 2010 8.4 million government workers were represented by unions, including 31% of federal workers, 35% of state workers and 46% of local workers . As Daniel Disalvo notes, "In today's public sector, good pay, generous benefits, and job security make possible a stable middle - class existence for nearly everyone from janitors to jailors ." </P> <P> By the 1970s, a rapidly increasing flow of imports (such as automobiles, steel and electronics from Germany and Japan, and clothing and shoes from Asia) undercut American producers . By the 1980s there was a large - scale shift in employment with fewer workers in high - wage sectors and more in the low - wage sectors . Many companies closed or moved factories to Southern states (where unions were weak), countered the threat of a strike by threatening to close or move a plant, or moved their factories offshore to low - wage countries . The number of major strikes and lockouts fell by 97% from 381 in 1970 to 187 in 1980 to only 11 in 2010 . On the political front, the shrinking unions lost influence in the Democratic Party, and pro-Union liberal Republicans faded away . Union membership among workers in private industry shrank dramatically, though after 1970 there was growth in employees unions of federal, state and local governments . The intellectual mood in the 1970s and 1980s favored deregulation and free competition . Numerous industries were deregulated, including airlines, trucking, railroads and telephones, over the objections of the unions involved . The climax came when President Ronald Reagan--a former union president--broke the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) strike in 1981, dealing a major blow to unions . </P> <P> Republicans, using conservative think tanks as idea farms, began to push through legislative blueprints to curb the power of public employee unions as well as eliminate business regulations . </P>

1. what is the current state of labor unions in the united states