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For some, the economic recession that has gripped the nation has an upside. Union leaders in Maryland say more government workers are turning to them in the hopes of gaining more job security, higher pay and better benefits.

"It's certainly a good time to organize," said Del. Tom Hucker (D-Dist. 20) of Silver Spring, a longtime union supporter. "In tough economic times, that's when workers want protections. They want to be able to keep their jobs and want the protection that comes with a union."

Patrick Moran, director of the Maryland chapter of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, said membership in his chapter has increased about 15 percent since the start of the recession three years ago and continues to grow.

The union now represents more than 30,000 public and private workers statewide.

"People are more concerned about what is going on out there, and they're looking for tools they can use to defend their rights, their economic security," Moran said. "And obviously, that's what unions are about."

However, data from the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics show that union membership in Maryland declined from 329,000 in 2008 to 323,000 in 2009.

The data do not distinguish between union membership in the private and public sectors.

The drop is possibly because of the overall decline in employment in the state. Maryland employment fell from 2.6 million in 2008 to 2.5 million in 2009, according to federal information. The state unemployment rate was 7 percent in May.

But these also could be tenuous times for public employee unions.

The down economy has tightened state and local budgets, making employee pay increases unaffordable. With unions unable to deliver what workers want, unions could be "vulnerable," said Fred Feinstein, a senior fellow with the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland, College Park.

"One would think that public employees are facing enormous pressures these days with the cutbacks in budgets and the efforts to cut back on their benefits and wages they've struggled hard for," he said. "These are difficult times for public employees, and the unions that represent them have a real challenge to make the case for them."

Feinstein said those challenges could weaken unions. "Employees' frustrations could get taken out on the people that represent them," he said.

Or, he said, the opposite could occur. "Now people might really rally around well-established unions," he said.

State lawmakers eliminated hundreds of government positions in the fiscal 2011 budget. Employees also will not receive pay raises and will take unpaid furloughs.

While union leaders are fighting for higher wages for employees, critics say those wages are squeezing state and local governments.

"Labor unions are facing an increasingly frustrated set of governors and mayors who are trying to balance budgets, but labor is unwilling to make any concessions on wages, salary and vacation time," said J. Justin Wilson, managing director of the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Union Facts, a nonprofit that gets some of its funding from the business sector. "Wages are typically one of the single largest line items of any budget."

In general, Wilson said unionized workers earn about 20 percent more than employees who do not belong to a union.

Fred D. Mason Jr., president of the Maryland and District of Columbia AFL-CIO, said union critics are wrong when they complain about inflated wages for unionized workers, saying that health care workers, police officers, state employees and others represented by the union earn a fair wage.

"There were some people who also said that free labor was the best labor," Mason said, referring to slavery. "And that idea held sway in this country for a couple hundred years."

In government, Wilson said the higher wages are payback for union campaign donations.

"The labor unions make political contributions to the people who are paying them," he said. "It's a huge conflict of interest."

However, more often local leaders have been forced to go against union interests when faced with tough budget decisions — despite receiving the campaign funds.

For example, the government employees union in Montgomery and Prince George's counties made donations to Montgomery County Council members' campaigns in 2009, only to see those council members vote in support of layoffs and furloughs in the next fiscal budget.

In December 2009, the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1994/Municipal and County Government Employees Organization donated $1,000 to the re-election campaign of Montgomery council President Nancy M. Floreen and $500 to re-elect Councilman George L. Leventhal, according to state campaign finance records.

Along with the other seven members of the council, Leventhal (D-At large) of Takoma Park and Floreen (D-At large) of Garrett Park voted for employee contracts that withheld pay raises and approved furloughs for employees.