Posts tagged union rate
The 15 Most Unionized Places in America
October 16, 2025 // To determine the most unionized locations in the U.S., researchers at Construction Coverage analyzed data from UnionStats.com and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The researchers ranked metropolitan statistical areas according to total union members as a percentage of total employment. In addition to union membership, the researchers also included statistics on union representation, which is the share of workers whose terms of work are collectively negotiated (whether or not they are union members). Only metropolitan statistical areas with available data were included in the analysis.
Newt’s World Episode 899: Employee Rights Act
October 13, 2025 // Newt talks with Vincent Vernuccio, President of the Institute for the American Worker about the Employee Rights Act of 2025, a legislative proposal aimed at enhancing and safeguarding the rights of American workers while promoting fairness and accountability in the workplace. Introduced by Senator Tim Scott and Congressman Rick Allen, the bill represents a Republican vision for the workforce, focusing on empowering workers, improving unions, and fostering innovation and growth. Vernuccio highlights the outdated nature of current labor laws,
The future of white-collar work may be unionized
October 10, 2025 // “The way layoffs happened at Google, where it wasn’t clear what the reason for people getting laid off was, definitely created a sense of job insecurity and mistrust,” says Parul Koul, a software engineer at Google and president of the Alphabet Workers Union. Another driver has been artificial intelligence threatening to replace entry-level knowledge work. Few white-collar industries epitomize the challenge of integrating AI into workflows more than the practice of law. While many legal experts say AI will have a transformative impact by automating repetitive research tasks, some also fear it will dilute entry-level associate roles at law firms.
Commentary: Unions Are Shrinking Nationwide—But Not in California
September 3, 2025 // California, though, is noteworthy for its steady union presence. It hasn’t fluctuated much since 2005, despite the national decline. Further, the federal data set used to produce the union figures does not include home health care and child care workers who are classified as self-employed. In California, that takes in some 700,000 workers, even though their hourly wages are negotiated with individual counties through unions.
Labor unions are much stronger in Oregon than nationally
September 2, 2025 // Nearly 300,000 Oregon workers belong to a union, according to federal data, about 1 in 6 workers statewide. Union membership rates have fluctuated since the 1980s but have gradually increased over the past two decades.
The share of Californians in unions holds steady as nationwide numbers continue decline
August 28, 2025 // The report, which analyzed data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, found that the percentage of Californians covered by a union has hovered between 16% and 18% in the last two decades. In 2024, the most recent year analyzed by researchers, the Golden State’s 2.67 million union-represented workers amounted to 16.3% of its labor force. Unions have only been able to sustain those numbers through consistent new organizing, said Enrique Lopezlira, director of the Low-Wage Work Program at the UC Berkeley Labor Center and a co-author of the report.
5.9% of Washington Workers Are Union Members, 6th Most in the U.S.
June 9, 2025 // Union membership in the United States has declined to its lowest point in decades. In 1979, unions represented 24.1% of the American workforce. By 2024, that share had fallen to just 9.9%, according to figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and UnionStats. In absolute terms, this represents a drop of roughly 6.7 million members—from a peak of 20.9 million in 1979 to around 14.2 million in 2024.
How Today’s Young Workers Are Creating a New Opportunity for Unions
June 2, 2025 // A new survey from LaborStrong found that 77% of workers aged 18-28 believe union workplaces are better than non-union ones. More than half say unions should be tackling urgent issues like AI and automation this year — not sometime in the future. And 56% of Gen Z workers are actively seeking out unionized workplaces when considering where to work. This is not nostalgia for the labor battles of the past. It's a new generation's urgent search for collective strength in a world that feels increasingly unstable.
Free the Economy podcast with Vinnie Vernuccio of the Institute for the American Worker
March 27, 2025 // Our interview for Episode 116 of the Free the Economy podcast is with Vinnie Vernuccio of the Institute for the American Worker. We talk about labor unions, independent contractors, right-to-work laws, port automation, and the future of the American workforce. Free the Economy is hosted by Richard Morrison. Our co-producer and editor is Destry Edwards. Keep up with new episodes by following us on Twitter at @freethe_economy and read our episode summaries, with links to the stories we cover, at cei.org/blog.
Op-ed: Protect American workers: How Trump’s team can fulfill his promise
March 6, 2025 // Regulatory reform is needed at three federal agencies that oversee labor laws and regulations: the U.S. Department of Labor, the National Labor Relations Board, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. At the Labor Department, the administration should remove the economically inept "environmental, social and governance" investment criteria and instead protect workers’ retirement savings. Investment managers should be prohibited from advancing political agendas that reduce pension returns. The administration should guarantee workers freedom of information and transparency, so union members know how their leaders are spending dues.