Although the labor movement has increased its commitment to organizing, the long-term decline in union membership continued in 2003.

Last year, the percentage of wage and salary workers covered by union contracts dropped from 13.3 percent to 12.9 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The number of union members decreased by 369,000 over the year to 15.8 million.

The percentage of private sector workers in unions now stands at an alarming 8.3 percent. In the public sector, the “union density” rate is four times higher, 37.2 percent. Most of the new members in the last quarter century are public workers. Union membership peaked at 35.5 percent in 1945, and it remained above 30 percent throughout the 1950s.

Factors explaining the decline in union membership include labor laws, anti-union law firms and consultants that help employers thwart organizing drives, the failure of many unions to buy into the AFL-CIO’s shift toward organizing, and global contracting out of manufacturing and service work.