1	Union Organizing Among Professional Women Workers Presentation by Kate Bronfenbrenner at the DPE Conference on Organizing Professionals in the 21^st Century March 15, 2005
2	Women in professional, technical, and clerical occupations 24% of workforce is in professional or technical occupations 26% of workforce is in clerical occupations 58% of professional technical workers are women 66% of clerical workers are women 6% of professional technical workers are union members 5% of clerical workers are union members
3	Professional occupations by gender, race, and union membership
4	Professional, technical, clerical occupations, by industry, gender, and union membership
5	The gender organizing gap among professional, technical, and clerical women High concentration of women in professional, technical, and clerical, occupations Research consistently shown that women have greater propensity to organize, across all occupational groupings Yet with the exception of the public sector, significant gap between percent women in occupation and union membership levels in the industry
6	Answering the question: data sources Compiled election data from public and private sector from 1999-2003 from the following sources NLRB elections from BNA Private sector card checks from AFL-CIO Work in Progress reports and Center for Employee Rights card check victory listing RLA election and card check records from NMB online report Public sector election and card check certification data from labor boards in California, Washington, New Jersey, Illinois, and Minnesota Micro-level data from an in-depth survey of NLRB certification election campaigns
7	NLRB certification elections Overall decline in NLRB union activity and success does not hold true across all industries and occupations Union activity continues to be concentrated in blue-collar industries, primarily male occupations, which account for 51 percent of all elections but only 42 percent of new workers organized At the same time, service sector industries, where most predominately female occupations are concentrated, account for only 34 percent of all elections but 51% of new workers organized Professional, technical, and clerical units account for only 13% of all elections but 22% of new workers organized
8	Professional, technical, and clerical organizing under the NLRB by industry
9	Professional, technical, and clerical organizing under card-check certifications by industry
10	Total workers organized in professional, technical, and clerical units through NLRB elections and card-check certifications, 1999-2003
11	Professional, technical, clerical campaigns under RLA Approximately 47 certification campaigns a year, 66% of which are in the airline industry Professional units in airlines are predominately male, with win rates averaging 63% and in the last five years 4,088 new workers organized Flight attendant units are predominately female, with win rates averaging 64% and in last five years 16,549 new workers organized Customer service and office workers also predominately female, with win rates averaging 50% and in last five years 8,048 new workers organized
12	Characteristics of public sector elections, 1999-2003 Win rates averaged 90%, increase from 1991-1992 Approximately a quarter of elections in all states concentrated in public education while the majority of other elections concentrated in local government and public safety, primarily among male blue collar workers Across all states major growth in elections among non-professionals Most dramatic of these is in California where SEIU (and also AFSCME) organized several hundred thousand home care workers Also shift towards organizing non-professionals in schools Overall, public sector union activity increased in last decade but not among professional, technical, and clerical workers
13	Professional, technical, and clerical units in public sector election and card-check campaigns
14	Common trends in public sector data Majority of gains for women in higher education have been among graduate students and to a lesser degree adjunct and part time faculty Also seen growth among women in libraries, public hospitals, social service units, and wall to wall units in rural areas Organizing in school districts shifting way from teachers towards non-professionals or wall-to-wall units in rural and suburban areas While overall public sector organizing has remained steady, with the exception of large graduate student units, most of the growth can be attributed to non-professional units
15	The organizing challenge To date women professional, technical, and clerical workers in both public and private sector have been largely neglected by labor’ revitalization efforts As we have seen some clear exceptions – in health care, communication and IT, airlines, and education and both public and privatized social services But for the most part unions are not making women in professional, technical and clerical occupations a priority.
16	Unique opportunity for a critical time Unions have their greatest success in units that are predominately female even in the most difficult sectors of the economy Success depends on whether unions run comprehensive organizing campaigns that capitalize on the strengths of predominately female units. Women in professional, technical, and clerical occupations provide unions a unique opportunity for growth at a critical time