Unions, a Force for Shared Prosperity, are Under Attack
Labor unions work to raise wages, secure better working conditions, and support policies to improve the lives of working people. They are important inside firms and more broadly in society as well. Inside firms, workers join together and through unions leverage collective power to secure higher pay and better working conditions. When unions represent a sufficient share of workers in an industry, they also raise job quality in that industry for all workers, even those who aren’t unionized. Unions play an important role in advocating for policies that improve the lives of working people – things like increasing access to health care, raising the minimum wage, and enforcing higher safety standards. By bringing workers together, unions are an important counterweight to the organized power of business. For working people, unions are good news, but they are facing sharp headwinds, especially as the new federal administration actively undermines and attacks them.
U1 shows that as unions have declined, inequality has surged.
Unions represent a declining share of the workforce, and as they have fallen, inequality has surged. U1 shows the share of income going to the nation’s richest 10%, which has increased dramatically since the 1980s. Income inequality in the U.S. has reached levels not seen since the 1920s. U1 also charts the share of the workforce in unions. Unionization tripled from 10 to 30% in the 1930s and 1940s and remained steady through the 1960s. A slow decline began in the 1970s and then accelerated. Since the 1980s, union membership has fallen dramatically back to the level of the mid-1930s.
Unionization has been falling, but public support for unions has risen to the highest level in 60 years. Gallup found that 70% of Americans approve of labor unions — a level of public support that hasn’t been reached since 1965. Workers have increased their mobilization, and in 2023, work stoppages (which include strikes and other worker actions to stop work) reached a high not seen in more than two decades. The contract struggles of the United Auto Workers (UAW), Teamsters and Hollywood writers, and new organizing at Amazon and Starbucks have all made the news, building a new image for unions’ role in our economy.
Workers have led seven strikes and thirteen protests in Wisconsin since January 1, 2024. These actions include strikes of health care, construction, food services, transportation, and manufacturing workers. The protests include a broad range of workers demanding higher wages, greater job security, and better working conditions. Additionally, more workers are increasingly petitioning to join unions. These actions build on increasing interest in the labor movement, especially among younger workers. However, renewed enthusiasm and action has not yet translated into gains in union membership.
For unions, unfortunately, the current moment is more defined by the aggressive hostility of the federal government than by the increasing interest of working people. In a move called “the largest single action of union-busting in American history,” the administration revoked the union rights of 1 million federal workers. The deunionization has been especially intense at the Veterans Administration where some 377,000 workers have lost their job security and contract protections. Federal worker contracts help protect the integrity of civil service work, research and data, and whistle blowers in federal agencies. Undermining federal unions not only denigrates federal work, it also makes our country less safe and our government less transparent. As a recent Center for American Progress report concluded:
These attacks could not come at a worse time for the American public.
Unionized federal workers have negotiated important protections that preserve scientific integrity; compensate workers on recovery or investigation missions for American prisoners of war and soldiers missing in action; protect workers who report patient abuse at VA hospitals; safeguard worker safety for USDA food inspection workers; and reinforce whistleblower protections at federal agencies that protect the public, such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency. At agencies where workers recently lost their bargaining rights, the administration allegedly forced federal regulators overseeing vaccine safety to resign and ordered the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to stop doing its job of issuing new rules that keep nuclear power plants safe.
Also ominous for unions is the administration’s approach to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) which is the federal agency that protects labor rights. In an unprecedented move, Trump fired NLRB member Gwynne Wilcox for “unduly disfavoring the interests of employers” and is nominating members who are likely to side consistently with employer interests. The NLRB plays a critical role in the rules and decisions that define the legal terrain for unions and employers. These pro-corporate steps at the NLRB undermine its independence and ability to protect labor rights.
In 100 Days, 100 Ways, the Economic Policy Institute identified 100 different policy actions the Trump administration had pursued that harmed workers in its first hundred days in office. These policies speak volumes about the administration’s disdain for unions. From the report:
“Trump also attacked workers’ union and collective bargaining rights and the independent federal agency tasked with protecting these fundamental labor rights. He fired National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Member Gwynne Wilcox for “unduly disfavoring the interests of employers”—making very clear his expectation that the NLRB members side with employers if they don’t want to lose their jobs. This is further evident by Trump nominating a partner at Morgan Lewis, the firm challenging the constitutionality of the NLRB, as the agency’s General Counsel. Within the federal workforce, President Trump stripped more than one million federal workers of their rights to organize and collectively bargain. Unions and collective bargaining provide workers with critical leverage to help improve their wages, benefits, and working conditions. Research shows that high rates of unionization are consistently associated with higher wages and better working conditions for both union and nonunion workers. By weakening workers’ organizing and bargaining rights, the Trump administration has hamstrung key tools for workers to improve their wages and working conditions.”
Wisconsin Unionization
Despite proud union history, union membership in Wisconsin has fallen dramatically.
Wisconsin’s history of strong unions and their dramatic decline is clear in U2. In 1989, 22% of Wisconsin workers were in unions; a rate of unionization well above the national rate. For both the state and the nation, union representation has been falling ever since. Wisconsin’s decline has been more pronounced. In 2012, Wisconsin’s unionization rate fell below the national average and has stayed below it ever since. In 2024, just 7% of Wisconsin workers were in unions. The national rate of unionization is just above half what it was in 1988. In Wisconsin, the decline is much steeper: Wisconsin unionization is less than one-third its 1988 level.
U3 provides unionization trends in the public and private sectors and shows that Wisconsin’s deunionization occurred especially in public sector unions.
Across the early 2000s, more than half of public sector workers in the state were union members. Since 2011, public sector unionization has collapsed, with just 20% of Wisconsin public sector workers unionized in 2024. This decline is the direct result of state policy which undermined the state’s public sector unions. (See next section for details on Act 10.)
While public sector deunionization has been rapid, Wisconsin’s private sector workers have also experienced a decline in union membership. The faster declines in private sector union rates are the direct result of Wisconsin’s 2015 passage of “right to work” legislation which makes operating unions in the private sector much harder. The chart makes clear that public sector unionization has fallen much more dramatically but as more workers are private sector workers, the ongoing slide in unionization to just 5% of the workforce is critical as well.
Workers Building Power In Wisconsin
In Wisconsin, despite anti-union policy, workers continue to work together to form unions and improve their jobs. In Milwaukee, workers in the Deer District secured an industry leading contract for their concessions, food service, and security jobs. Their union, MASH, continues to expand its reach and impact work which we documented in “From Community Benefits, to Collective Bargaining, and Back: Building Worker Power in Milwaukee”.
Wisconsin Public Sector Unions: Redefined In 2011
The collapse of Wisconsin’s public sector unionization is the direct result of state policy.
In 2011, despite an outpouring of support for public sector bargaining rights, the state legislature passed Act 10 which restructured the terms of Wisconsin’s public sector unionization, reducing public unions’ power, relevance, and membership.
The structure of Act 10 does not actually prohibit the existence of public sector unions. Rather, it restructures the rules around them, limiting their power and relevance and making it extremely difficult to operate. For example, Act 10 limits the bargaining of public-sector unions to only wage increases that cannot exceed the rate of inflation. This obviously undermines the relevance of wage negotiations and leaves some of the most important issues to workers — benefits, safety, and scheduling – off the table. Further, employers are not allowed to collect union dues in paychecks, even when workers demonstrate and document interest in such collection.
Additionally, Act 10 requires an annual vote to maintain their certification as a union. In that vote, the union must receive support of at least 51% of all members of the unit, regardless of how many members actually vote. Taken together, Act 10 has reduced the potential positive impact of public sector unions while substantially increasing the burden of operating them. Public sector unions have been devastated as a result.
In recent years, unions in the state have brought legal challenges to Act 10. A lower court ruled against Act 10, but nothing has changed as the decision is being appealed and is yet to be decided by the Wisconsin Supreme Court. More than a decade after it was passed, the status of Act 10 remains uncertain.
Union Trends in Wisconsin vs. Neighboring States
U4. Wisconsin union membership plummets.
From 2011 to 2024, Wisconsin’s unionization rate fell in half, from 14% to 7%. Over the same period, national unionization fell from 13% to 11%. Wisconsin’s union rates are plummeting as national rates and the rates of our neighbors fall less rapidly.
State trends in unionization reflect both state policy and industrial structure. With unionization falling from 15.8% to 14.7% over 2011-24, Minnesota has experienced substantially less decline in unions than even the national pace. Unionization in Illinois and Indiana fell slightly faster than the national pace. Michigan deunionization exceeded national declines. Iowa and Wisconsin dramatically outstripped the national pace of decline.
Unions and Wages
Unions build worker power and shared prosperity.
Despite federal and state policies that have impeded unionization over the last half century, unions continue to provide workers with the means to improve wages and working conditions in their jobs. When unions win strong contracts, as the UAW did, non-union worksites raise wages in response (as Toyota’s U.S. facilities did just after the UAW contract was signed). Unions are also a social force, supporting policy that helps workers, families, and communities thrive. Unions have been essential partners in movements to raise the minimum wage, to defend the ACA, and to secure strong protections and support for all workers. Workers in Wisconsin continue to organize, to pursue their collective interests, and improve their work and communities. State and federal policy changes could help support this work, but the work will go on in any policy environment, as long as workers see reason to join together in order to improve their jobs.
