As public support for unions grows, U.S. laws still favor employers

The laws that helped pull unionization down to near 10% remain on the books—but 6 out of 10 U.S. adults now say declining unionization is bad for the country.

By Mark Kreidler for Capital & Main

For organized labor in the U.S., 2023 was a year of strikes that made national news and resulted in high-profile negotiating victories. From the sidewalks of Hollywood and New York to assembly plant floors in Detroit and beyond, the phrase “hot labor summer” arrived in full fury.

And despite a year that felt full of breakthroughs, the future of unions in this country is indeed an open question.

The union membership rate in the U.S. for 2022 fell to the lowest level ever recorded at 10.1%, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. That is barely half the 20.1% unionization rate that existed in 1983, the first year for which comparable data are available.

Numbers for 2023 are due early next year from the BLS, but union rates have been on a downward trajectory for 40 years with virtually no interruption. At the same time, public support for unions in America is near 50-year highs, and 6 in 10 adults say the reduction in union representation has been bad for the country. So what’s going on?