Unions are a critical working-class institution. They are one of the most effective organizations in the struggle against poverty, inequality, and economic insecurity.

They’re also deeply popular with the American public — a poll conducted by Gallup last year saw labor unions receive an approval rating of 70 percent. 

But despite that broad public support, union membership has fallen steadily over the past four decades. Union density collapsed from 20.1 percent in 1983 to 9.9 percent in 2024, a record low. That’s a total loss of more than 3.4 million union members, from 17.72 million to 14.25 million union members out of a workforce of 88.29 million and 144.52 million, respectively.

The majority of the American public correctly sees this downward trend as harmful to both the country and the working-class. The slide also highlights the need for labor to dedicate more of its resources to organizing non-unionized workplaces rather than lobbying and political campaigns. 

Our political system’s dependence on money is a serious structural barrier towards moving the country in a pro-labor direction. We see this in the massive deployment of economic resources at the federal level by lobbyists. And the disparity is jarring when you compare the federal spending by business lobbyists to labor. 

From the beginning of 2020 to this past year, labor lobbyists spent more than $258 million, but this is dwarfed by the $17.1 billion doled out by the business sector. This is a ratio of 66 to 1 in favor of business. Corporate influence operations account for 86.7 percent of all federal lobbying spending, and they have zero interest in seeing the expansion of workers’ rights and power. 

In other words, political spending is a losing game for organized labor. They cannot match the economic power of oligarchs and the corporations they control, leaving it with little political leverage and influence over our elected public officials. 

Despite these structural disadvantages, the labor movement has scored some political victories. Unions endorsed Joe Biden for president in 2020 and donated $27 million directly to his electoral campaign. This paid some dividends. The Biden administration bolstered the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in a pro-labor direction, increasing the agency’s funding and appointing dedicated workers’ rights advocates.

However, as noted by journalist Hamilton Nolan, the opportunity to expand worker power was squandered — a record low of union density was reached after four years of a favorable administration. 

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