The History of Unions in the United States

Labor unions are associations that aim to protect workers’ rights and advance their interests. They negotiate with employers through a process known as collective bargaining. The result is a union contract in which an employer specifies compensation, hours, benefits, job health, and safety policies. Workers achieved higher wages, reasonable hours, safer working conditions, health benefits, and aid when retired or injured because of labor unions.

Unions were also instrumental in ending child labor in the United States. They've exerted a broad influence on American life, reshaping the political, economic, and cultural fabric of the country.

A Gallup poll found that 71% of Americans supported unions in 2022, up from 64% before the COVID-19 pandemic and the highest support level since 1965. Another Gallup poll found support still high at 70% in 2024.

The Rise of Labor Unions in the U.S.

Labor unions have existed in the U.S. since the country's birth. Their origins can be traced back to the 18th-century Industrial Revolution in Europe.

The first recorded worker strike in America occurred in 1768 when journeymen tailors protested a wage reduction. Philadelphia shoemakers formed a union called the Federal Society of Journeymen Cordwainers in 1794. The establishment of this group marked the beginning of sustained trade union organization in the country.

Local craft and trade unions then proliferated in major American cities. Industrialization resulted in the aggregation of workers in large factories, creating fertile ground for union growth. Large factories also put multiple trades under one roof, eventually leading to alliances among unions. Achieving a shorter workday was one of the unions' major accomplishments.

Excluding Women, Black Workers, and Immigrants

The need for both skilled and unskilled labor increased after the Civil War and the end of slavery.

Union members in the skilled trades remained overwhelmingly White Protestant, native-born males throughout the 19th century. These higher-paid workers had the funds to pay union dues and to contribute to strike funds. They were reluctant to organize unskilled Irish and Italian immigrants and they also excluded Black workers and women. Black workers were often paid lower wages and this made White workers fear they would be replaced by cheaper labor.

Excluded groups organized their own unions. Black caulkers in the shipbuilding industry held a strike at the Washington Navy Yard in 1835. Women tailors, shoe binders, mill workers, and Black laundresses formed their own unions.

The National Union for Cigar Makers was the first union to accept women and Black workers in 1867. The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers had been organizing in the telephone industry and it primarily accepted women telephone operators in 1912.

Protecting Workers’ Rights

Winning gains such as a shorter workday and a minimum wage for all workers and citizens have been a key aspect of union activity. The National Labor Union was created in 1966 to limit the workday for federal employees to eight hours. The private sector was much harder for unions to penetrate, however.

The price of labor declined as more immigrants flooded the country. One group was often pitted against another to keep wages down. Chinese workers were brought in as replacements when Irish workers won pay raises from the railroads.

Thousands of Chinese workers were grading and digging tunnels for the transcontinental railroad. They simultaneously threw down their picks and shovels in 1867 to protest their lower pay compared with White workers. Their strike failed after the railroad owner cut off all food and supplies.

Poor pay and working conditions led to work stoppages by the Pullman Railroad Workers and the United Mine Workers but both strikes were broken up by the government.

Eugene Debs, leader of the American Railway Union in the 1894 strike against the Pullman Company, was unable to convince members of his union to accept Black railroad workers. Black workers then served as strikebreakers for the Pullman Company and for the owners of Chicago meatpacking companies whose stockyard workers struck in sympathy.

A. Philip Randolph began his successful 12-year fight in 1925, striving to gain recognition for the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters from the Pullman Car Company, the American Federation of Labor (AFL), and the U.S. government. Randolph ultimately succeeded in his quest in 1937.

Labor Reform Legislation

Unions worked not only for improvements in pay and working conditions but also for labor reforms.

The Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions was formed in 1881 and the AFL was founded five years later. Their combined organizing force led to the act of Congress that created the Department of Labor (DOL) in 1913.

The Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914 allowed employees to strike and boycott their employers. It was followed by the Walsh-Healey Public Contracts Act of 1936 and the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 which mandated a minimum wage, extra pay for overtime work, and basic child labor laws. The AFL-CIO later played a crucial role in helping to pass civil rights legislation in 1964 and 1965.

Impact of the Depression and War

Labor unions grew in power and number from the Civil War through World War I. They lost some influence during the 1920s but the Great Depression quickly reversed this trend with workers turning to their local trade unions to find employment and protection.

Union membership grew exponentially as the Depression wore on. The Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) was established in the 1930s and organized large numbers of Black workers into labor unions for the first time. There were more than 200,000 Black workers in the CIO in 1940. Many of them were officers of local unions.

The influence of labor unions was somewhat curtailed during World War II. Some unions such as those in the defense industry were forbidden by the government to strike because it would present an impediment to wartime production.

The end of the war saw a wave of strikes in many industries. Union power and membership as a percent of employment reached a high point from the 1940s to the 1950s. The AFL merged with the CIO and became the AFL-CIO in 1955. The goal was to influence policies that would impact the American labor force.

Some of the founding trade unionists were socialists, communists, or anarchists interested in leveraging union organization into broader revolutionary change. Others focused solely on bread-and-butter issues. The Taft-Hartley Act was passed in 1947 over President Harry Truman’s veto. It required all union officials to file affidavits and take oaths that they weren't communists. This and many other provisions of the act weakened the union movement.

Organizing Lower-Paid Workers

The next decades brought unionization to some of the lowest-paid workers in the nation’s hospitals, nursing homes, and farms.

The 1950s

Hospital workers in New York City were organized by 1199, a predominantly White and Jewish union of pharmacists led by Leon Davis. 1199 mobilized the predominantly Black and Latino workforce in the late 1950s during the first flush of the civil rights movement. An unprecedented 46-day strike at seven of the city’s most prestigious hospitals ended with the workers winning union recognition and better pay and working conditions.

1199 organized thousands of nursing home and home care workers in the 1990s and later merged with the Service Employees International Union to become 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East.

1965 to 1970

Filipino and Mexican American farm workers organized a grape boycott that succeeded in rallying national support. They were led by Philip Vera Cruz, Cesar Chavez, and Dolores Huerta. It brought grape growers to the table after five years to sign a first union contract granting better pay, benefits, and protections. Agricultural workers still have a very low rate of union membership, however.

1979

The number of union members reached a peak of 21 million in 1979. Workers were able to rely on federal laws to protect them as additional laws were passed outlawing child labor and mandating equal pay for equal work regardless of race or gender. They've continued to prove their importance, particularly in the political sphere, despite the erosion in labor unions’ member numbers, power, and influence.

Unions Today

2008 to 2024

Unions were instrumental in the election of President Barack Obama in 2008 and his reelection in 2012. Union leaders hoped that Obama would be able to pass the Employee Free Choice Act, legislation that was intended to streamline and shorten the process of bringing new members into unions. Democrats were unable to garner enough support to pass the law, however.

Union membership decreased during the Obama administration and this may have led some union members to switch their support to Republican Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential election. President Joe Biden worked during his term to get unions back on board with the Democrats by vowing to be the “most pro-union president leading the most pro-union administration in American history.”

The highest rates of union membership are in the public sector and specifically in local government which covers the heavily unionized occupations of police officers, firefighters, and teachers. Private sector industries with high unionization rates include utilities, motion pictures, sound recording, transportation, and warehousing.

Non-union workers had median weekly earnings of $1,337 in 2023 which is $199 more than the $1,138 recorded for union members.

Organized labor is now more diverse than ever. In 2024, 14.3 million people employed in the U.S. belonged to unions, representing about a tenth of the working population. Representation was fairly evenly divided among genders and races with Black workers the most likely of all races to be part of a union at an enrollment rate of 11.8%.

Less encouraging for unions is the gradual decline in membership rates. About 20% of the working U.S. population was part of a union in 1983 compared to 10.2% in 2024.

Support for Unions

The decline in union membership is perceived as a negative for most Americans, according to a study by Pew Research Center. As many as 54% of Americans polled said they believed the drop was “bad for the country” and 59% suggested that it “has been bad” for employees. Those views are divided, however, based on which political party you ask. Republicans tend to view the drop in union membership as favorable. Democrats are more likely to support unions.

Younger generations are also helping to boost union membership. Some reports claim the biggest gains in union membership have been among workers ages 34 and younger. Young people are unionizing in new sectors, too, such as art museums, cannabis shops, digital media brands, political campaigns, and tech companies.

The Bottom Line

Labor unions have a long history in the United States and have broadly influenced politics and the economy over the years. Some of the benefits of unions for workers have included higher wages and better working conditions.

Union membership reached a peak in the 1940s and 1950s. Younger generations, the impact of the pandemic on workers, and a tight labor market have made unions more popular among Americans, even though membership is down.