Number of union workers trending upward for Oregon as Washington continues steady decline; California workers less hopeful amid current changes from administration

Union membership has been in a decline nationwide. But not so much in the Pacific Northwest.

As unions in states like California grapple with federal changes affecting the National Labor Relations Board, which is tasked with safeguarding the right of private employees to unionize, states like Oregon and Washington appear less impacted so far. 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. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as many as 15.9% of wages and salary workers in Oregon belonged to a union in 2024 compared with 14.1% in 2023, showing an upward trend.

In Washington, the number of union workers appears to be on a steady decline. While roughly the same number of workers in 2024 appeared to be members of a union as Oregon, at 16%, that number has dropped half a percentage point from 2023 and has been on a downward trend since 2021, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

By comparison, the share of workers nationally who belong to a union has fallen by almost half since 1986. Fewer than 1 in 10 American workers were union members last year. That’s according to data compiled by unionstats.com, a research site maintained by three university professors. The Bureau of Labor Statistics shows 9.9% of employed American workers are union.

Oregon is a progressive state led by a Democratic Party that has historically been friendly to unions. The Labor Day picnic is a key stop every year for ambitious politicians looking to establish their bona fides with the unions.

Unions won a major victory during this year’s legislative session in Oregon, with lawmakers approving a bill that allows striking workers to collect 10 weeks of unemployment insurance payments. Only a few other states grant jobless benefits to striking workers, and this year’s bill made Oregon the only state that pays benefits to workers on strike in both the private and public sectors.

• Fred Meyer and QFC grocery workers won a new contract last October after protracted negotiations, which included a six-day strike by Fred Meyer workers last August. The United Food and Commercial Workers Local 555 didn’t disclose terms of their new deal but said it included “the most significant wage increase” for grocery workers in the region’s history.
• Boeing machinists in Washington and Oregon went on strike for seven weeks last fall, ultimately winning a contract that will boost wages by 38% over four years.
• Employees at New Seasons Market went on strike for nine days in February as employees and the chain clashed over an employee’s firing and protracted efforts to negotiate their first contract. They’re still working on it.
• About 5,000 Providence nurses walked out this past January at eight Oregon hospitals and six clinics. The strike lasted for nearly seven weeks, ending in February with a deal that provided wages and some assurances around hospital staffing levels.
• The biggest unions representing Oregon state employees won a new contract this month, which includes cost-of-living increases and a new pay classification for long-serving employees, without going on strike.

Less hopeful reality elsewhere as Trump administration comes with new challenges

In California, thousands of workers and union organizers are expected to gather for picnics and marches. But while the holiday is often marked for celebration, union workers in the Golden State aren’t feeling so golden as unions face mounting pressure to protect their members from the Trump administration’s immigration raids, cuts to Medicaid and a weakened National Labor Relations Board.

In early August, the administration moved forward with a plan to end collective bargaining with federal unions across a swath of government agencies. The government said the changes were necessary to protect national security, but unions viewed it as retaliation for their participation in lawsuits opposing the president’s policies.

The Trump administration has also proposed sweeping cuts to the staff of the National Labor Relations Board – which is tasked with safeguarding the right of private employees to unionize or organize in other ways to improve their working conditions – and canceled leases for regional offices in many states.

Union officials contend that the changes could hobble the board and prevent it from investigating unfair labor practice charges filed by workers and carrying out its other responsibilities, such as overseeing elections.

“Important rules and regulations that were put in place during the Biden administration that were helpful to workers – those are systematically being rolled back,” said Enrique Lopezlira, director of the Low-Wage Work Program at the UC Berkeley Labor Center.

Unions are bracing for further challenges that could arise when Trump finally makes appointments to the federal labor board, which is currently nonoperational, because it doesn’t have enough board members to rule on cases.

“We are all under attack by the federal government right now,” said Jeremy Goldberg, executive director of the Central Coast Labor Council. “The need is tremendous.”

But even as many labor leaders have openly opposed the Trump administration, others have taken a more muted approach. Major national unions, such as United Auto Workers and the Teamsters, have supported aspects of the Trump agenda on tariffs abroad and a push for manufacturing jobs at home.

Although California has a larger share of its workforce represented by unions compared with many other states, that density is overly reliant on public sector workers, and membership of those unions is likely to shrink in the coming years, said John Logan, a professor of U.S. labor history at San Francisco State.

Unions are “ill-equipped to deal with this moment of crisis,” Logan said. “The labor movement is fighting for its survival over the next four years.”

Reporting from the Oregonian and Los Angeles Times, with information contributed by Spokesman-Review staff.