The current state of unions across the country is a study in contradiction. On one hand, public support for unions in the U.S. is at 70%, just a tick off the highest mark in 60 years. Petitions for union elections filed with the National Labor Relations Board have more than doubled in the last four years.
On the other hand, the national membership numbers are down. It’s only a slight decrease, but it continues a long, steady decline. In 1983, the first year for which a comparable data set to today exists, the union membership rate among American workers was 20.1%. By 2024, it stood at 9.9%.
