ANALYSIS: Workers Spent 2023 Unionizing—and Striking—in Droves

Two new statistical analyses of Bloomberg Law data show that workers are engaging in organizing and picketing activity at a magnitude that hasn’t been seen in the US labor market in years.

Unions organized almost 100,000 workers in National Labor Relations Board representation elections in 2023, according to Bloomberg Law’s semiannual report on NLRB election statistics. The total of 99,116 newly organized workers is the largest single-year cohort since 2000, and the fourth largest since at least 1990.

This is the first time since at least 1990 that unions have managed to increase their NLRB organizing headcount for three years in a row.

Also in 2023, more than half a million workers engaged in union-initiated strikes against their employers, according to a newly released special report on work stoppage statistics.

The total of 530,287 workers idled by strikes in 2023 is the second-highest on record since Bloomberg Law started tracking work stoppages in 1990. The only year that saw more workers covered by strikes was 2018, during a wave of city- and statewide teachers’ strikes.

As with the NLRB elections, the strike total reflects a prolonged climb—not a single-year spike—in workers’ union activity: This was only the second time since 1990 that the number of striking workers rose for three straight years. (The other three-year run occurred in 2010–2012.)

These worker totals might appear to contradict the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ recent reporting of a continued downward trend in the US union membership rate. But a closer look at the raw totals reveals a growth trend similar to what we’re seeing in elections and strikes.

While the total number of union members aged 25 and older has declined slightly over the past decade, BLS data shows that membership among the much smaller 16-to-24 age group has risen substantially. The trend is even more pronounced over the past three years—the same period that has seen such dramatic rises in organizing and strike activity.

Add it all up, and it points to a building trend toward a larger, newer, and more contentious labor force.

Both the semiannual NLRB Election Statistics report and the new Union Strike Activity in 2023 report are available to Bloomberg Law subscribers on the Labor Relations & Collective Bargaining page.

The Union Strike Activity report is also available to the public. Nonsubscribers can download the report here.

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