“I like unions. I just don’t like my union.”
Time and again I hear this sentiment from employees across the country. Most will express frustration with their union officials, who have disappointed or even abused them and other members. Some tell me how they tried to improve their own union from within but failed. They imagine that a better union exists – one where union officials actively improve the workplace and help workers achieve a degree of personal freedom.
Opinion polls confirm this sentiment. Gallup found that about two-thirds of Americans are broadly in favor of unions, but only 9% say they belong to a union.
New figures from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) confirm these findings. Despite a minuscule increase from last year, the percentage of workers choosing to join a union remains historically low at 10% – up from an all-time low of 9.9% last year.
Starbucks employees and supporters strike in front of the former Starbucks Reserve Roastery that closed earlier this year, Thursday, November 13, 2025, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
Private sector unions were especially unpopular with workers, with membership rates holding steady at a record low 5.9%. For reference, in 1980, more than 20% of all private sector workers were union members.
And it’s possible that this year’s numbers overestimate workers’ interest in union activity. According to the Center for American Progress, the National Labor Relations Board oversaw 30% fewer union elections in 2025 than in 2024. The total number of workers participating in these elections fell even further, down 42% from 2024.
Meanwhile, the figures in the public sector tell a similar story.
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According to the BLS, government employees – including teachers, state employees, and city and county workers – have a much higher union membership rate: 32.9%. That’s a small increase since 2024 (less than one percentage point) and the first year-over-year increase since 2020. This marginal increase comes from federal and state employee membership rates, which both increased by nearly two percentage points.
But this relatively high percentage of union members does not mean that their government union officials are performing better than their private sector counterparts. First, government and private sector employees increasingly share the exact same union officials. For example, the United Auto Workers (UAW) union represents more graduate student workers and postdoctoral fellows than any other union, and these workers—many of whom work at public institutions—now make up as much as 25% of the UAW’s membership. In contrast, autoworkers make up less than half of the UAW’s existing members.
More likely, these divergent unionization rates in the private and public sectors reflect the fundamental difference between the sectors.
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In the private sector, a strong, aggressive union can negotiate a way out of business. For example, in 2023, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters celebrated a huge victory over UPS, which brought raises and better benefits to its members. However, just over two years later, UPS folded 48,000 positionsthen announced plans to cut another 30,000.
Certainly, external economic factors, such as tariffs, played a role. But the unions are not off the map.
Private sector unions were especially unpopular with workers, with membership rates holding steady at a record low 5.9%. For reference, in 1980, more than 20% of all private sector workers were union members.
“UPS is not an outlier,” wrote Liya Palagashvilli, an economist at the Mercatus Center. “It’s a case study of how monopoly bargaining can generate short-term victories that give way to long-term adjustment costs.”
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A literature review of 147 studies from Mercatus shows that union victories can increase employer costs, resulting in higher costs and less volume for customers. It is inevitable that employers will lay off employees, resulting in fewer union members.
But public employers rarely cut services and never go bankrupt. So when government unions secure increases in salaries or benefits, taxpayers pay the price. In January, Teamsters provided a 13% pay increase for school administration assistants, food services managers and plant managers in the Los Angeles School District. The school district now faces a projected $877 million deficit, but the recent layoff plans will result in just 650 layoffs, less than 1% of its 83,000 employees.
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Moreover, public sector unions have become experts at getting their friends elected to positions of power, hoping that government officials will repay the favor in negotiations with taxpayer dollars. Union officials have no such power over private employers, where the individuals they negotiate with are driven to keep the business afloat and can only draw on profits earned in a competitive market.
It is fair to say that government unions are also losing members. The membership rate among civil servants has fallen steadily since 1994, when it peaked at 38.7%. Remember the union members who told me they would like to have another union? They were mainly public school teachers.
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Paradoxically, by befriending greedy politicians and milking taxpayers, government union executives have done a disservice not only to these teachers, but also to unionized public servants and first responders. In 2024, the four largest government unions collectively spent $650 million on political activism and electoral activities – 86% of which came from their membership dues. The deeper they delve into politics, the more public sector unions become obsessed with ideology and power, betraying the individual government employees they are supposed to represent.
The workers’ patience has run out. Workers continue to express their disapproval of unions by simply walking out. Until unions refocus on better serving and representing their members, rather than pursuing short-term profits and political favors, union leadership—and their members’ trust in them—will continue to decline.
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