The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) recently reported that more than one half of the union members in the labor force work for government. In fact, 41.1 percent of the government workforce is represented by unions, compared to just 8 percent in the private sector. In the nonpostal federal service, approximately 61 percent of the workforce was represented by unions in 2001 (the latest year for which data are available); about 80 percent of the eligible employees were represented by labor or
