UNION RESOURCE GUIDE
United Against Investment Fraud
A NASAA Investor Education program
What is a Union?
A group of people united in a relationship and having some interest, activity, or purpose in common:
association, club, confederation, congress, federation, fellowship, fraternity, guild, league, order,
organization, society, and sorority. The term union can be interchangeable with association or
federation. A trade union or labor union is an organization run by and for workers who have banded
together to achieve common goals in key areas and working conditions.
Union Facts & Figures:
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, union members accounted for 12.4 percent of
employed wage and salary workers in 2008, up from 12.1 percent a year earlier. The number of
workers belonging to a union totaled 16.1 million. Some highlights from the 2008 data are:
Government workers were nearly five times more likely to belong to a union than were private sector
employees.

Within the public sector, local government workers had the highest union membership rate.
This group includes teachers, police officers, and fire fighters. Private sector industries with
high unionization rates include transportation and utilities, telecommunications, and
construction. Workers in education, training, and library occupations had the highest
unionization rate. Unionization rates were relatively low in financial activities and
professional and business services.
Among states, New York had the highest union membership rate and North Carolina had the lowest
rate.

Six states had union membership rates below 5.0 percent in 2008, with North Carolina
having the lowest rate (3.5 percent). The next lowest rates were recorded in Georgia (3.7
percent), South Carolina (3.9 percent), Virginia (4.1 percent), Texas (4.5 percent), and
Louisiana (4.6 percent). Three states had union membership rates over 20.0 percent in 2008-New York (24.9 percent), Hawaii (24.3 percent), and Alaska (23.5 percent). The largest
numbers of union members lived in California (2.7 million) and New York (2.0 million).
About half (8.0 million) of the 16.1 million union members in the U.S. lived in just 6 states:
California, New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Ohio.
Demographic Characteristics of U.S. Union Members

The union membership rate was higher for men than for women in 2008. In 2008, black
workers were more likely to be union members than workers who were white, Asian, or
Hispanic. By age, union membership rates were highest among workers 55 to 64 years old,
followed by 45 to 54 years old. The lowest union membership rates occurred among those
ages 16 to 24. Full-time workers were about twice as likely as part-time workers to be union
members.
Types of Unions:
Unions and association span all sectors of the workforce: healthcare, labor, education, trade and
individual workers, professionals, past workers, or the unemployed. Members of a union may range
from machinists in auto-repair shops to in home care providers who belong to a service-workers union.
Chances are you might be a member of a union or association in your jurisdiction.
 Unions in the United States. List of employment by state with union affiliated workers.
 Unions in Canada.
Unions in North America
Please note this is a sampling of unions and associations—not an exhaustive list.
American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) www.afge.org
The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) is the largest federal employee union
representing 600,000 federal and D.C. government workers nationwide and overseas.
American Federation of Labor Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) www.aflcio.org
The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) is a voluntary
federation of 56 national and international labor unions (see list here). The AFL-CIO union movement
represents 11 million members, including 2.5 million members in Working America, its new
community affiliate. ALF-CIO members include teachers and truck drivers, musicians and miners,
firefighters and farm workers, bakers and bottlers, engineers and editors, pilots and public employees,
doctors and nurses, painters and laborers—and more. The AFL-CIO was created in 1955 by the
merger of the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations.
American Federation of State County & Municipal Employees (AFSCME) www.afscme.org
AFSCME’s 1.6 million members provide the vital services that make America happen and advocate
for prosperity and opportunity for all working families. AFSCME members include nurses, corrections
officers, child care providers, EMTs and sanitation workers.
American Federation of Teachers (AFT) www.aft.org
The AFT has more than one million members nationwide, and has grown into a trade union
representing workers in education, health care, and public service.
American Postal Workers Union (APWU) www.apwu.org
The APWU is the world's largest postal union, representing more than 330,000 USPS employees and
retirees, and nearly 2,000 private-sector mail workers. APWU members belong to approximately
1,600 state and local unions and retiree chapters in every state and territory.
Change To Win Federation (CTW) www.changetowin.org Seven unions and six million workers
united in Change to Win in 2005. This Federation includes 7 unions: International Brotherhood of
Teamsters (IBT), Laborers' International Union of North America (LIUNA), Service Employees
International Union (SEIU), United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America (UBC) United
Farm Workers of America (UFW), and the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union
(UFCW).
International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) www.iaff.org
The International Association of Fire Fighters represents more than 292,000 full-time professional fire
fighters and paramedics who protect 85 percent of the nation’s population. More than 3,100 affiliates
and their members protect communities in every state in the United States and in Canada. In addition
to city and county fire fighters and emergency medical personnel, IAFF members include state
employees, federal workers and fire and emergency medical personnel employed at certain industrial
facilities.
International Longshore and Warehouse Union www.ilwu.org
The International Longshore and Warehouse Union has approximately 42,000 members in over 60
local unions in the states of California, Washington, Oregon, Alaska and Hawaii. An additional 3,500
members belong to the Inlandboatmen's Union of the Pacific, which constitutes the Union's Marine
Division. Another 14,000 members belong to the autonomous ILWU Canada.
International Union of Police Associations (IUPA) www.iupa.org/
Since the IUPA’s beginning, the organization has become one of the most influential voices for law
enforcement in the political arena. In 1966, the N.C.P.A. amended its by-laws to allow a number of
local Canadian police associations to affiliate and N.C.P.A. became known as the International
Conference of Police Associations.
National Education Association (NEA) www.nea.org
With 3.2 million members, NEA is the nation’s largest labor union and represents teachers, secretaries
and educational support personnel.
Service Employees International Union (SEIU) www.seiu.org
With 2 million members in Canada, the United States and Puerto Rico, SEIU is the fastest-growing
union in the Americas and includes healthcare, public services and property services workers.
Transport Workers Union (TWU) www.twu.org
The Transport Workers Union of America was founded in 1934 as an industrial union dedicated to the
promise that an organization built on trust and equality for all workers cannot be denied. TWU is
affiliated with the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO)
and the worldwide International Transport Workers Federation (ITF). We are a trade union
representing workers in Mass Transportation, Airline, Railroad, Utility, University, Municipalities,
Service and allied industries.
United American Nurses (UAN) www.uannurse.org
UAN is the union for nurses, by nurses, with staff nurses establishing its agenda and steering its
course.
United Auto Workers (UAW) www.uaw.org
The International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of
America (UAW) is one of the largest and most diverse unions in North America, with members in
virtually every sector of the economy. UAW-represented workplaces range from multinational
corporations, small manufacturers and state and local governments to colleges and universities,
hospitals and private non-profit organizations. The UAW has about 513,000 active members and more
than 575,000 retired members in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. There are more than 800
local unions in the UAW. The UAW currently has 3,100 contracts with some 2,000 employers in the
United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.
United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) www.umwa.org
The United Mine Workers of America membership that includes coal miners, clean coal technicians,
health care workers, truck drivers, manufacturing workers and public employees throughout the
United States and Canada.