US union membership rate fell to new low in 2023
Unionization rates bottom out for second straight year despite highest approval ratings in decades
Theres a lot going on in the labor movement right now: Eugene Scalia
Former U.S. Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia discusses the tentative deals in the actors and UAW strikes and the impact of the union vote on Cavuto: Coast to Coast.
The percentage of U.S. workers that hold labor union memberships hit a record low for the second consecutive year in 2023, despite unions racking up big wins and receiving the highest approval rating in decades.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Tuesday that the union membership ticked down to 10%, a slight decline from 10.1% in 2022.
Striking Kaiser Permanente workers hold signs as they march in front of the Kaiser Permanente San Francisco Medical Center on October 04, 2023 in San Francisco, California. More than 75,000 Kaiser Permanente workers went on strike at hospitals and me (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images / Getty Images)
Though the overall number of wage and salary workers belonging to a union rose to 14.4 million in 2023, up from 14.3 million the year before, it was not enough to keep up with the increase in non-union workers added to the workforce last year.
This disproportionately large increase in the total wage and salary employment, compared with the increase in the number of union members, has led to a decrease in the union membership rate for the past two years.
UAW members protest in support of the union strike at the Ford Assembly Plant on the South Side on October 7, 2023 in Chicago, Illinois. (Jim Vondruska/Getty Images / Getty Images)
Last year's drop in the union membership rate came despite a flurry of labor activity, high-profile victories, and unions reaching their highest approval rating from the public in nearly six decades.
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In 2023, organized Hollywood actors and writers hailed reaching new contracts after months of striking, the United Auto Workers achieved record contracts with Ford, General Motors and Stellantis after a striking against all three, and the Teamsters reached a record-breaking contract with UPS.
A United Parcel Service (UPS) driver sits in his delivery truck on January 31, 2023 in San Francisco, California. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images / Getty Images)
A Gallup survey from August found 71% of Americans approve of organized labor, up from 68% in 2021 and 64% prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. The data from Gallup's annual Work and Education survey also marked the highest rating Gallup has on record sine 1965, the year César Chávez formed AFL-CIO United Farm Workers Organizing Committee.
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Still, union membership has been in steady decline since the 1970s and is now less than a third of its peak rate in the 1950s, when more than 30% of workers were in a union.
FOX Business' Bradford Betz, Daniella Genovese and Reuters contributed to this report.