Global InformationLabor unions in the United States information
 Hotel union workers strike with the slogan "One job should be enough" | |
| National organization(s) | AFL–CIO, SOC, IWW |
|---|---|
| Regulatory authority | United States Department of Labor National Labor Relations Board |
| Primary legislation | National Labor Relations Act Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 Taft–Hartley Act |
| Total union membership | 14.3 million (2022)[1] |
| Percentage of workforce unionized | 10.1% (2022)
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| International Labour Organization | |
| United States is a member of the ILO | |
| Convention ratification | |
| Freedom of Association | Not ratified |
| Right to Organise | Not ratified |
| This article is part of a series on the |
| Economy of the United States |
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| This article is part of a series on |
| Socialism in the United States |
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Labor unions represent United States workers in many industries recognized under US labor law since the 1935 enactment of the National Labor Relations Act. Their activity today centers on collective bargaining over wages, benefits, and working conditions for their membership, and on representing their members in disputes with management over violations of contract provisions. Larger labor unions also typically engage in lobbying activities and electioneering at the state and federal level.
Most unions in the United States are aligned with one of two larger umbrella organizations: the AFL–CIO created in 1955, and the Change to Win Federation (current Strategic Organizing Center) (SOC) which split from the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL–CIO) in 2005. Both advocate policies and legislation on behalf of workers in the United States and Canada, and take an active role in politics. The AFL–CIO is especially concerned with global trade issues.
The percentage of workers belonging to a union (or total labor union "density") varies by country. In 2022 it was 10.1% in the United States, compared to 20.1% in 1983.[2][3] There were 14.3 million members in the U.S. in 2022, down from 17.7 million in 1983.[2][3] Union membership in the private sector has fallen to 6.0%, one fifth that of public sector workers, at 33.1% (2022).[2][3] From a global perspective, in 2016 the US had the fifth lowest labor union density of the 36 OECD member nations.[4][5]
In the 21st century, the most prominent unions are among public sector employees such as city employees, government workers, teachers and police. Members of unions are disproportionately older, male, and residents of the Northeast, the Midwest, and California.[6] There is a substantial wage gap between union and nonunion workers in the U.S.; unionized workers average higher pay than comparable nonunion workers (when controlling for individual, job, and labor market characteristics); research shows that the union wage gaps are higher in the private sector than in the public sector, and higher for men than women.[7] Private-sector union strength positively affects the wages of nonunion private-sector wages" (when controlling for background conditions, such as industry, the automation risk, offshoring, public-sector union strength, overall employment levels, and other factors); this is called the union spillover effect.[8]
Although much smaller compared to their peak membership in the 1950s, American unions remain a political factor, both through mobilization of their own memberships and through coalitions with like-minded activist organizations around issues such as immigrant rights, environmental protections, trade policy, health care, and living wage campaigns.[9] Of special concern are efforts by cities and states to reduce the pension obligations owed to unionized workers who retire in the future.[10] A study of U.S. elections from 1964 to 2004 found that unions increase voter turnout of both members and nonmembers.[11] Labor unions have a longstanding alliance with the Democratic Party, and union members make up an important part of the party's base.[12] By contrast, the Republican Party has opposed unions and championed various anti-union policies, such as the adoption of right-to-work laws, restrictions on public-sector union collective bargaining, the repeal of prevailing wage laws, and preemption of local minimum wage laws.[13][14]
There is substantial evidence that labor unions reduce economic inequality.[15][16] Research suggests that rising income inequality in the United States is partially attributable to the decline of the labor movement and union membership,[17][18][19]: 1 and that this is not only a correlation.[20] Research has also found that unions can harm profitability, employment and business growth rates.[21][22]
- ^ "Union Members Summary". Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved October 1, 2022.
- ^ a b c "UNION MEMBERS — 2022" (PDF). Bureau of Labor Statistics. January 19, 2023.
The union membership rate—the percent of wage and salary workers who were members of unions—was 10.1 percent in 2022, down from 10.3 percent in 2021, ... The union membership rate of public-sector workers (33.1 percent) continued to be more than five times higher than the rate of private-sector workers (6.0 percent).
- ^ a b c Rosalsky, Greg (February 28, 2023). "You may have heard of the 'union boom.' The numbers tell a different story". NPR.
Headline writers began declaring things like, "Employees everywhere are organizing" and that the United States was seeing a "union boom." In September, the White House asserted "Organized labor appears to be having a moment." However, the Bureau of Labor Statistics recently released its union data for 2022. And their data shows that — far from a resurgence — the share of American workers in a union has continued to decline. Last year, the union membership rate fell by 0.2 percentage points to 10.1% — the lowest on record.
- ^ See: Trade Union Density. OECD. StatExtracts. Retrieved: January 1, 2017.
- ^ See also Trade union#Prevalence worldwide
- ^ Not With a Bang, But a Whimper: The Long, Slow Death Spiral of America's Labor Movement, Richard Yeselson, The New Republic, June 6, 2012
- ^ David A. MacPherson & Barry T. Hirsch, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3855962 Five Decades of Union Wages, Nonunion Wages, and Union Wage Gaps at Unionstats.Com], IZA Institute of Labor Economics, IZA Discussion Paper No. 14398 (2021).
- ^ Patrick Denice & Jake Rosenfeld, Unions and Nonunion Pay in the United States, 1977–2015, Sociological Science (2018).
- ^ Mayer, Brian (May 2009). "Cross-Movement Coalition Formation: Bridging the Labor-Environment Divide*". Sociological Inquiry. 79 (2): 219–239. doi:10.1111/j.1475-682X.2009.00286.x.
- ^ Alicia H. Munnell (2012). State and Local Pensions: What Now?. Brookings Institution Press. pp. 4–5. ISBN 978-0815724131.
- ^ Jan E. Leighley & Jonathan Nagler, Unions, Voter Turnout, and Class Bias in the U.S. Electorate, 1964–2004, Journal of Politics, Vol 69, Issue 2 (2007), pp. 430-441.
- ^ Taylor E. Dark, The Unions and the Democrats: An Enduring Alliance (Cornell University Press, 2018).
- ^ Ruth Milkman & Stephanie Luce, Labor Unions and the Great Recession, RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences (2017), Vol. 3, Issue 3, pp. 145-165: "In the private sector, the U.S. political and regulatory context became increasingly unfavorable to unionism starting in the 1970s, but that was far less often true in the public sector until very recently. However, in the twenty-first century, and especially since the Great Recession, concerted political attacks on public sector unionism have spread, and anti-unionism has become a cornerstone of conservative ideology."
- ^ Laura C. Bucci & Joshua M. Jansa, Who passes restrictive labour policy? A view from the states, Journal of Public Policy (2021), Vol. 41, Issue 3, pp. 409-49.
- ^ Ahlquist, John S. (2017). "Labor Unions, Political Representation, and Economic Inequality". Annual Review of Political Science. 20 (1): 409–432. doi:10.1146/annurev-polisci-051215-023225.
- ^ Farber, Henry S; Herbst, Daniel; Kuziemko, Ilyana; Naidu, Suresh (2021). "Unions and Inequality over the Twentieth Century: New Evidence from Survey Data*". The Quarterly Journal of Economics. 136 (3): 1325–1385. doi:10.1093/qje/qjab012. ISSN 0033-5533.
- ^ Doree Armstrong (February 12, 2014). Jake Rosenfeld explores the sharp decline of union membership, influence. UW Today. Retrieved December 19, 2014. See also: Jake Rosenfeld (2014) What Unions No Longer Do. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0674725115
- ^ Keith Naughton, Lynn Doan and Jeffrey Green (February 20, 2015). As the Rich Get Richer, Unions Are Poised for Comeback. Bloomberg. Retrieved February 20, 2015.
- "A 2011 study drew a link between the decline in union membership since 1973 and expanding wage disparity. Those trends have since continued, said Bruce Western, a professor of sociology at Harvard University who co-authored the study."
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
IMF_2015_studywas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Michael Hiltzik (March 25, 2015). IMF agrees: Decline of union power has increased income inequality. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 26, 2015.
- "The IMF analysis suggests these trend lines aren't merely correlations, but the first is caused, at least partially, by the second. Indeed, the paper says that roughly half the increase in income inequality in advanced economies is 'driven by deunionization.'"
- ^ Hirsch, Barry T. "What do unions do for economic performance?." Journal of Labor Research 25, no. 3 (2004): 415–455.
- ^ Vedder, Richard, and Lowell Gallaway. "The economic effects of labor unions revisited." Journal of labor research 23, no. 1 (2002): 105-130.