To quote most regressive Republicans, "California drank the Kool-Aide." Yep. They sure did and it shows!
California is not an experiment, it is proof!
February 1, 2017
By Jonathan Lansner
...A new report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (click here) shows union influence in the entire California workplace grew slightly last year, a stark contrast to declining union rolls nationwide.
Here are six things worth knowing:
1. Big numbers: California is a comparative union town, with 2.55 million members statewide in 2016, highest in the nation. Those unionized workplaces roughly equal all the jobs in Minnesota. New York was second last year at 1.9 million; Illinois third, at 812,000.
2. Growing rolls: California union membership grew with the state job market, up 65,000, or 2.6 percent, in a year. Nationally, it’s a different story: Unions had 14.6 million members in 2016, down 237,000, or a dip of 1.6 percent....
What happened to Democrats? They lost the Middle Class supported by a good quality of life and union membership. The Middle Class has been replaced by the Working Poor facilitated by the god awful Gingrich Welfare Class and a lost generation of "Occupy Wall Street."
...6. Trump voters? Forget exit polls. My trusty spreadsheet translated this union data into curious presidential political insight. The 30 states that Trump won had a total of 5.5 million union members last year (7 percent of their workforce) vs. 9.1 million in the other 20 states and D.C. (15 percent of all jobs.) But in Trump states, union rolls were down 244,000 and up 7,000 elsewhere. Did Trump draw well from the recently unemployed? Look at key swing states like Florida (down 90,000 union jobs in 2016) or Pennsylvania (off 62,000), both won by the new president....
