STUDY SAYS UNIONS MUST SEEK FEMALES

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, February 14, 1993                   TAG: 9302120056
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: F-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short
STUDY SAYS UNIONS MUST SEEK FEMALES
Labor unions need to organize female workers, who now are under represented, underpaid, and may soon be a majority of the workers in America, according to a study released last week.
"Union elections held today with a majority of women or `minority' workers are won more often than those in traditionally male- or white-dominated workplaces," the study said.
"Thus attention to organizing and mobilizing women members will be critical to the future" of the U.S. labor movement, concluded the report written for the International Labour Organization, a U.N.-sponsored agency headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.
The report said there were 48.9 million women employees in 1990, representing 47 percent the U.S. workforce.
The study, "Women Workers, Unions and Industrial Sectors in North America," projects that by the end of the decade, women will represent a majority of the work force.
Susan Eaton, author of the report, said that men are leaving the work force earlier than they used to, in part because of layoffs and early retirements.
Also, she added, male-dominated employment centers such as the automobile and steel industries are shrinking, while female workers are increasing in the fast-growing service and retail industries.
Still, the study shows only 14 percent of women workers are unionized, roughly the same percentage as 30 years ago. But because male membership has slipped from 35 percent to just above 20 percent, women's percentage of membership has risen by default to 37 percent.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB