THE FINANCES OF MAJOR US UNIONS

Financial resources have a significant impact on labor's current attem pt to reassert itself. We examine the total assets, net worth, and inc ome of unions in (1) a cross-sectional analysis of the distribution of financial resources across national, intermediate, and local levels o f unions and (2) a longitudinal analysis of trends in a variety of fin ancial measures. We observe considerable decentralization of financial resources across levels, substantial concentration of resources, and differences across and within union sectors. These results are discuss ed with regard to current merger activity.