On Tuesday, the AFL-CIO hosted its second annual “State of the Unions” Labor Day event. According to AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler, unions are “on the rise,” “battle-tested,” and “building organizing capacity” like never before.
What does the data really say about the health and vibrancy of organized labor in 2024 and its nascent efforts to reverse forty years of decline? We can look at four key metrics: organizing new workers, collective bargaining and strikes, union finances, and labor democracy and governance. This data tells a more complicated story — while US unions are showing encouraging signs of life, the trends also reflect daunting challenges.
The AFL-CIO says that labor is “organizing like never before.” Is that accurate? While data is not readily available for public sector workers, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) tracks the number of workers involved in union elections in the private sector. In 2023, approximately 93,000 workers participated in an election for union representation, up from 63,000 in 2022. And 2024 is on pace for approximately 107,000 workers voting on union representation.
The increase in union representation elections is encouraging, but if you step back and look at the number of elections in relation to total employment, the challenge becomes clearer. In 2023, the 93,000 workers participating in union elections represented just 0.09 percent of the 108.4 million production and nonsupervisory employees in the private sector. In 2024, the percentage is projected to be about 0.10 percent of all…
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Auteur: Chris Bohner
