US union membership dips to record low despite high-profile wins

U.S. union membership continued a decades-long slide to a record low in 2023, even as unions capitalized on high-profile talks with automakers and actors and won the biggest raises in years.

The union membership rate – the share of wage and salary workers who were members of unions – was 10% last year, just below the 10.1% seen in 2022, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data released Tuesday.

The numbers highlight a disconnect between historically strong public support for unions and their ability to attract new members. That’s despite major contract wins at companies like United Parcel Service Inc. and Detroit’s Big Three automakers, as well as renewed support from President Joe Biden and the AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest labor federation.

Still, unions demonstrated their power through strikes last year: Over half a million people walked off the job, according to Bloomberg Law’s database of work stoppages, with auto workers and Hollywood writers and actors scoring historic job benefits and protections.

Those wins will give unions good momentum heading into the new year. Labor leaders like United Auto Workers’ president Shawn Fain have set audacious goals for 2024 and beyond, looking to organize companies like Tesla Inc.

Unions remain much less common in the private sector than among government workers. Union membership among private employers was little changed at 6% in 2023, while about one-third of public-sector workers were members of a union.

By comparison, in 1983 the overall membership rate was 20.1%, twice what it is today. While the rate slipped last year, the number of U.S. workers in unions actually ticked up to 14.4 million. But it wasn’t enough to keep pace with growth in the total workforce.