Over the last year, most of us have probably seen headlines about union organizing (like at Starbucks) and strikes (like at Detroit's Big Three). Therefore, based on the recent Bloomberg Law report “Analysis: Workers will collectively spend unionization and strikes in 2023,” there was a significant upward trend in unionization and strikes last year. It may not be surprising to know that.
The report states: “Labor unions organized nearly 100,000 workers on the National Labor Relations Board.” [NLRB] 2023 representative election, according to the Bloomberg Law Firm's Semi-Annual Report on NLRB Election Statistics. The total of 99,116 newly organized workers is the largest single-year group of workers since 2000 and the fourth largest since at least 1990. ” Needless to say, these are big numbers.
Here's a chart from Bloomberg showing how these numbers stack up.
Notably, unions have increased their total number of union election winners for three consecutive years (2021-2023) – something that hasn't happened since before 1990.
At least some of this success can be attributed to several changes the NLRB has made to the union election process over the past year or so, particularly in the last year. First, and perhaps most importantly, the authorities overhauled the union organizing process, which supposedly made it easier for unions to be recognized as bargaining representatives. The NLRB also speeds up the timeline for an election process that many believe favors workers, allowing unions to target smaller workforce segments (i.e., “micro-units”), at least in some cases. It also issued a judgment acknowledging that. They tend to be easier to organize than larger units.
But despite these numbers and “legal victories,” total union membership continues to decline. In fact, in 2023, the union membership rate for private and public sector workers will drop from 10.1% in 2022 to 10%. For comparison, in 1983, when this data first became available, that number was 20.1%, and twice that in unionized areas. now.
Union membership in the private sector remains at an all-time low of 6%. The public sector share is more than five times that amount, at 32.5% (down from 33.1% in 2022). So while there may be some new data for unions to celebrate, overall it appears that unions are losing ground and are far from regaining the status they enjoyed decades ago.
