labor unions in the United States
Labor unions in the United States are worker organizations that represent employees in collective bargaining, workplace disputes, political advocacy, and campaigns for improved pay and working conditions.
Last updated November 4, 2026
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Overview
Labor unions in the United States are membership organizations through which workers seek collective representation in dealings with employers and, in many cases, with public authorities. Their principal functions include negotiating wages, benefits, hours, job security, health and safety standards, grievance procedures, and other employment conditions. Unions may also represent members in disciplinary proceedings, arbitration, administrative proceedings, and litigation. Larger organizations participate in lobbying, electoral mobilization, public campaigns, and coalition work involving trade, immigration, health care, environmental policy, pensions, and minimum-wage legislation. The American labor movement developed in response to industrialization, wage dependence, dangerous workplaces, and the limited bargaining power of individual employees. Local trade societies and national organizations expanded during the nineteenth century. The Knights of Labor became a major force in the 1880s, but organizational weakness, internal disagreements, employer resistance, and government opposition limited its durability. The American Federation of Labor, founded in 1886 and associated for decades with Samuel Gompers, established a more durable federation of craft unions and concentrated on practical gains through collective bargaining and political pressure. Federal labor policy changed the movement's position substantially during the New Deal. The National Labor Relations Act of 1935, commonly called the Wagner Act, established protections for private-sector employees who organize and bargain collectively and created the National Labor Relations Board to administer much of that system. Union membership and influence expanded during the 1930s and the Second World War, helping make organized labor a central part of the New Deal political coalition. In 1955, the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations merged to form the AFL-CIO, the country's principal labor federation for much of the postwar period. Union density reached its postwar high in the mid-1950s, when roughly one-third of workers belonged to unions. Total membership later reached an estimated peak around the end of the 1970s. Since then, manufacturing decline, international competition, automation, employer opposition, plant relocation, deregulation, and changes in employment structure have weakened many private-sector unions. The 1981 Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization strike and the federal government's response under President Ronald Reagan became a widely recognized symbol of this period. Public-sector unions expanded during much of the second half of the twentieth century and became increasingly prominent as private-sector density fell, although their legal rights vary considerably by state. Most organized workers are affiliated directly or indirectly with unions connected to the AFL-CIO or to organizations associated with the Change to Win movement, now commonly represented through the Strategic Organizing Center. Major unions cover public employees, teachers, government workers, police, transportation employees, construction workers, health-care workers, hospitality workers, communications workers, journalists, and manufacturing employees. Union members typically authorize representatives to negotiate a collective-bargaining agreement. Disputes may proceed through contractual grievance procedures and arbitration, while strikes and lockouts remain regulated by federal or state law. Union density in the United States is substantially lower than its historical peak. The referenced data report density of 9.4 percent in 2024, compared with 20.1 percent in 1983, the first year of a comparable modern series. The same material reports 14.3 million members in 2022, compared with 17.7 million in 1983, with markedly higher density in the public sector than in the private sector. Unions nevertheless remain significant political and economic institutions. Research cited in the subject's literature links union decline with greater income inequality and finds that union representation is associated, on average, with higher pay and improved workplace protections, while other research identifies possible costs for employer profitability, employment, or business growth. Contemporary organizing has included campaigns among digital-media, nonprofit, logistics, education, service, and journalism workers.
History
Organized labor in the United States emerged from the social consequences of industrialization. During the nineteenth century, workers formed local craft associations, trade societies, and broader labor organizations to address long hours, low wages, workplace injuries, arbitrary dismissal, and the absence of meaningful individual bargaining power. National organizations became more visible after the Civil War. The Knights of Labor reached substantial influence in the 1880s by attempting to organize across trades, but its membership model, internal conflicts, uneven administration, and opposition from employers and public authorities contributed to its decline. The American Federation of Labor, founded in 1886, pursued a more durable federation model centered largely on craft unions. Under Samuel Gompers, it emphasized collective bargaining, wage improvements, shorter hours, and political engagement in support of labor interests. The movement remained fragmented and faced injunctions, strikebreaking, private security forces, court decisions, and occasional military intervention. Industrial workers in mass-production sectors were often inadequately represented by craft-based structures, contributing to the rise of the Congress of Industrial Organizations in the 1930s. The New Deal transformed the legal environment. The National Industrial Recovery Act briefly encouraged collective bargaining, although the Supreme Court invalidated that statute. The National Labor Relations Act of 1935 then established durable federal protections for private-sector organizing and bargaining. It also created the National Labor Relations Board. During the late 1930s and the Second World War, industrial unions organized large factories and transportation networks, and membership grew rapidly. Organized labor became a central institution within the New Deal coalition and developed a close, though sometimes contested, relationship with the Democratic Party. After the Second World War, business groups and conservative lawmakers sought to limit union power. The Taft–Hartley Act of 1947 amended federal labor law by restricting certain strikes, secondary activities, and union political practices; it also allowed states to enact right-to-work statutes. President Harry Truman vetoed the measure, but Congress overrode the veto. Later, the Landrum–Griffin Act of 1959 imposed additional reporting and governance requirements after congressional investigations into corruption and undemocratic practices in parts of the labor movement. The Supreme Court invalidated the act's original anticommunist oath provision, but much of the broader law remained in force. The AFL and CIO merged in 1955, creating the AFL-CIO and consolidating much of organized labor's national political and institutional power. Union density reached approximately 35 percent of workers in 1954, while total membership reached an estimated high of about 21 million around 1979. From the 1960s onward, public-sector unions expanded significantly among federal, state, and municipal employees, teachers, and other government workers. Their growth partly offset the decline of industrial unions, although public-sector bargaining rights developed through a mixture of federal and state statutes and remained uneven across the country. From the 1970s through the 1990s, unions faced deindustrialization, imports, automation, deregulation, employer relocation, subcontracting, and the movement of production to lower-wage regions. Employers increasingly closed facilities, moved operations, or threatened relocation during organizing and bargaining disputes. The number of major strikes and lockouts fell sharply. The 1981 PATCO strike became a landmark episode after President Reagan dismissed striking air-traffic controllers, signaling a tougher political and employer environment. Private-sector membership continued to weaken while public-sector unions became comparatively more prominent. The labor movement entered the twenty-first century with lower density but continued institutional reach. Most unions are associated with the AFL-CIO or with the Change to Win movement and its successor structures. Organizing has expanded or renewed in sectors such as education, health care, logistics, hospitality, nonprofit work, digital media, and journalism. Unions have also formed alliances around immigrant rights, environmental regulation, trade policy, health care, living wages, pension protection, and opposition to right-to-work measures. At the same time, court decisions, state laws, public-sector restrictions, employer campaigns, and changes in work organization have constrained traditional models of representation. The subject is not a single legal entity or commercial brand. It describes a broad institutional field comprising independent local unions, national and international unions, federations, employee associations, and newer forms of minority or solidarity unionism. Its contemporary significance is therefore measured through representation, membership, bargaining coverage, political mobilization, and workplace outcomes rather than through sales or corporate ownership.
- 2024
Union density reported at 9.4 percent
[1]Referenced labor statistics place U.S. union density far below its postwar peak.
- 1981
PATCO strike is broken
[1]The dismissal of striking federal air-traffic controllers became a major symbol of labor's reduced bargaining position.
- 1959
Landrum–Griffin Act is enacted
[1]Congress imposed reporting, disclosure, and internal-governance requirements on labor organizations.
- 1955
AFL-CIO merger
[1]The AFL and CIO merged into the country's leading labor federation.
- 1947
Taft–Hartley Act is enacted
[1]The law imposed significant restrictions on union activity and enabled state right-to-work statutes.
- 1935
National Labor Relations Act becomes law
[1]Federal law protected private-sector organizing and collective bargaining and created the NLRB.
- 1886
American Federation of Labor is founded
[1]The AFL established a durable national federation model for affiliated trade unions.
Products and positioning
A collective worker-representation system focused on improving members' bargaining power, compensation, job security, workplace safety, and voice in employment decisions.
Labor representation
Collective-bargaining agreements
Legally enforceable agreements negotiated between a union and an employer or public authority. They commonly establish wage scales, benefits, hours, overtime rules, leave, job classifications, seniority, discipline standards, health and safety provisions, and procedures for resolving disputes.
Member services
Grievance and arbitration representation
Unions represent members when they allege that an employer violated a collective agreement or improperly imposed discipline. Many contracts require internal grievance steps followed, when necessary, by arbitration before a neutral decision-maker.
Worker organizing
Organizing campaigns
Organizing campaigns seek majority support among workers in a bargaining unit through voluntary employer recognition or a government-supervised representation election. Newer models may also use minority, solidarity, or members-only organizing without traditional majority certification.
Controversies
Marketing campaigns
- 2015News and digital-media organizing wave
United States
Journalists and other media workers organized in response to layoffs, financial pressure, and insecure employment across traditional and digital publications. NewsGuild and Writers Guild of America campaigns were among the prominent examples identified in the reference material.
Outcome. The referenced material reports successful organizing efforts involving thousands of journalists across numerous organizations.
Brand decisions
2005
Formation of the Change to Win blocStrategyBackground
Several unions criticized the AFL-CIO's organizing priorities and strategic direction.
Action taken
Dissident unions split from the AFL-CIO and formed the Change to Win federation, later associated with the Strategic Organizing Center.
Aftermath
The split created a second major national labor grouping and intensified debate over organizing strategy and resource allocation.
1955
AFL-CIO federation mergerM&ABackground
The AFL and CIO had been divided for more than two decades by organizational and strategic differences.
Action taken
The two federations combined to create the AFL-CIO.
Aftermath
The merger consolidated national labor representation and political advocacy, although affiliated unions retained substantial autonomy.
1935
Adoption of federally protected collective bargainingStrategyBackground
Private-sector unions had previously operated under an inconsistent and often hostile legal environment.
Action taken
The National Labor Relations Act created statutory organizing protections and a federal labor-relations board.
Aftermath
Union membership and bargaining power expanded substantially during the New Deal and wartime periods.
Sources1 sources
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