Construction workers finish concrete in Chicago in June. Illinois added 27,000 union members in 2024, according to a recent report by the Illinois Economic Policy Institute and Project for Middle Class Renewal at the University of Illinois. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
While union membership dips nationally, a new report by the Illinois Economic Policy Institute and Project for Middle Class Renewal at the University of Illinois says two states that have strengthened laws on collective bargaining rights in recent years are seeing union membership increase.
In 2022, Illinois voters approved a constitutional amendment protecting bargaining rights. Illinois reported its first non-pandemic increase in unionization since 2017, with 27,000 union members added in 2024, according to the report.
Michigan repealed its “right-to-work” law in 2023, and gained 15,000 members in 2024 after years of union membership decline, the report shows. Michigan’s action was the first reversal of a state “right-to-work” law in decades, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. With the change, unionized workplaces can now require union dues or fees as a condition of employment.
States have been active in recent years when it comes to determining the balance of bargaining rights between workers and employers.
In February, Utah Republican Gov. Spencer Cox signed a ban on collective bargaining for public-sector employees such as teachers, police officers, firefighters and transit workers. The law is considered among the most restrictive in the country.
Labor advocates have since collected enough signatures to put a voter referendum on Utah’s 2026 ballot that could overturn the ban.
In Wisconsin, a county judge ruled last December that a 2011 Republican-backed law banning collective bargaining for most public employees violated the state’s constitution. His decision is being appealed before the Wisconsin Court of Appeals.
Meanwhile, Democrats in Washington state this year expanded bargaining rights for agricultural cannabis workers and ferry workers and corrections workers. Maryland enacted a locally supported law giving bargaining rights to sheriff’s deputies in Calvert County, southeast of Washington, D.C..
Bills that would have expanded bargaining rights for public-sector workers in Nevada and Virginia were vetoed by Republican governors.
Adjusting for occupation, geography, education and demographics, union membership offered an average 8.5% boost in wages in the United States between 2022 and 2024, the report found.
Twenty-six states now have “right-to-work” laws, in which employees at a unionized workplace are not required to pay union dues even if they’re covered by the bargaining agreement. The Illinois researchers say such laws, along with a 2018 Supreme Court ruling barring mandatory union fees for public employees, are major drivers of declining union membership nationally.
Stateline reporter Robbie Sequeira can be reached at rsequeira@stateline.org.
