Eric has numbers on the rate of unionization in Illinois:
From Unionstats.com by Barry Hirsch (Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University) and David Macpherson (Department of Economics, Trinity University). My little chart below shows the percentage of the overall workforce covered by unions, the percentage of the private sector and the percent of the public sector since this data set started being compiled:
YEAR Overall/Private/Public
1983 27.4 23.4 48.5
1990 22.7 17.7 50.7
2000 19.5 14.9 49.3
2010 16.4 10.1 52.6
In other words, the overall rate of union coverage in the workforce has fallen from 27.4 percent in 1983 to 16.4 percent today. But the percentage in the public workforce has grown slightly (from 48.5 percent to 52.6 percent) over those 27 years, while the percentage in the private sector has plunged (23.4 to 10.1 percent)
So see, unions must be the problem with our economy as we have a less stable economy union strength has decreased. It all makes sense.
That is, if you are delusional and can’t deal with actual evidence.