Funny Numbers: Deconstructing the 2022 Union Membership 'Gains'
While union membership may be up by "double digits" year-over-year in some cases, a LaborUnionNews.com analysis shows they are still below pre-pandemic levels.
Like the U.S. economy overall, unions are doing better than they were during the pandemic. However, despite the wave of union organizing that began in 2021 and continued through 2022, many unions have not made up for their membership losses over the last decade, according to an analysis of membership data on file with the U.S. Department of Labor.
On Monday, Bloomberg Law ran an article entitled Unions Report Key Membership Gains in 2022, Filings Show. In the article, the writer stated that “several large US unions saw double-digit growth in 2022…” and cited union union membership gains from 2021 to 2022 to back up the statement.
While Bloomberg Law’s analysis is not incorrect, it also does not provide the full picture. In fact, using a year-over-year analysis from 2021, when unions were only beginning to recover from pandemic-lockdowns and layoffs belies the fact that, despite the wave of union organizing in 2021 and 2022, union membership numbers are still down from pre-pandemic levels.
Here are Bloomberg Law statements regarding unions’ 2022 membership gains, compared to membership data over the last decade:
International Brotherhood of Teamsters
Bloomberg Law: “The International Brotherhood of Teamsters reported gaining 206,000 members, an increase of 20% from the previous year.” [Emphasis added.]
LaborUnionNews.com analysis: The highest number of union members the International Brotherhood of Teamsters reported over the last decade was 1,389,454 in 2018. In 2022, the union reported 1,221,545—a 12 percent drop from its 2018 peak.
International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU)
Bloomberg Law: “The International Longshore and Warehouse Union added 3,200 members, an 11% increase, in the middle of contentious contract talks with port operators.” [Emphasis added.]
LaborUnionNews.com analysis: Like the Teamsters, the highest number of union members over the last decade the ILWU reported to the Department of Labor was in 2018, when the union reported 38,450 members. In 2022, the ILWU reported 32,260 members, which represents a 16 percent drop from its 2018 peak.
Workers United
Bloomberg Law: “And Workers United—the group responsible for organizing Starbucks Corp. workers—clocked 7,400 new members in 2022, a 10% gain, the DOL documents show.” [Emphasis added.]
LaborUnionNews.com analysis: Unlike the Teamsters and ILWU, both of which saw their decade-long memberships peak in 2018, Workers United—an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union—actually saw its membership peak in 2015, at 90,071 members. By comparison, in 2022, the union reported 79,372 members—an 11.9 percent drop in members from 2015. In addition, if one were to use the 80,710 members the union had in 2019, before the lockdowns and layoffs, the union is still down 1.6 percent.
United Auto Workers (UAW)
Bloomberg Law: “The United Auto Workers added 11,000 members, a 3% increase over the previous year, in part by winning a historic first vote in a US auto battery plant in Lordstown, Ohio.” [Emphasis added.]
LaborUnionNews.com analysis: Perhaps the biggest decline in terms of actual union members lost over the past decade has been the United Auto Workers, which had its highest union membership in the last 10 years in 2017, at 430,871 members. By 2022, the union reported 383,003, which represents an 11.1 percent decline. If, however, one were to use the pre-pandemic 2019 union membership of 398,829 as a baseline the UAW is still down nearly four percent (3.97%).
UNITE-HERE
Bloomberg Law: “Unite Here added nearly 40,000 hospitality workers, a gain of more than 18%, after losing nearly all of its members at the height of the pandemic.” [Emphasis added.]
LaborUnionNews.com analysis: Like other unions, UNITE-HERE’s union membership peaked—at 307,890 in 2019— the union has still not fully recovered from the pandemic lockdowns and layoffs. In 2022, the union reported 262,135 members—a 14.8 percent drop from its pre-pandemic peak.
While UNITE-HERE’s membership numbers have rebounded some 84 percent from its mid-pandemic low of 142,300 with the hotel industry (where many of the union’s members are employed) moving away from daily housekeeping, it remains to be seen whether the union will ever fully recover.
While many unions did gain members in 2022, even in the midst of the 2021-2022 organizing wave, most (73.2 percent) of the 273,000 members gained were from already-unionized employers hiring (or re-hiring), as was noted following the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ annual Union Membership Survey in January.
“A boom in hiring by a number of already unionized employers drove an increase of 200,000,” CNN reported in January.
Again, while Bloomberg Law’s overall article about union membership gains in 2022 is not wrong, it does not tell the whole story.