By JERRY NOWICKI
Capitol News Illinois 
jnowicki@capitolnewsillinois.com 

SPRINGFIELD – Overall participation in labor unions has declined in recent years in Illinois, although the state has seen an increase in successful unionization efforts for the second year in a row. 

That’s according to the State of the Unions 2024 report, the latest installment in an annual review of unionization in Illinois and the U.S. by the Illinois Economic Policy Institute and the University of Illinois’ Project for Middle Class Renewal. ILEPI is a nonprofit research organization with a board of directors that’s closely tied to organized labor. 

The study found that Illinois saw 86 successful union petitions in 2023, up from 67 the year before. Those are the two highest totals in a 10-year period dating back to 2014. The prior eight years ranged from 25 to 62 successful petitions.

“When you see a couple of positive years where you’re seeing growth in in numbers, it does suggest that there’s some change in the labor market, there’s some change in worker attitudes, there’s some change in the strategy of union organizers,” Robert Bruno, a report co-author and director of the Project for Middle Class Renewal said in an interview. “It all suggests a positive turn.”

The successful petitions led to 4,399 additional workers being unionized in 2023, down from 9,497 in 2022.

“That’s from coffee shops to hospitals to cannabis producers to top-ranked universities,” said Frank Manzo, a report co-author and economist with ILEPI, said. “You know, private and nonprofit workers successfully organized dozens of workplaces, showing that the labor movement is gaining traction in new and emerging industries.”

Manzo and Bruno spoke to Capitol News Illinois for the latest episode of Capitol Cast ahead of the Labor Day holiday. Listen below or wherever you get your podcasts. 

Despite the increase in private sector unionization efforts, the percentage of Illinois’ workforce that is unionized dropped below 13 percent for the first time in the 10-year period surveyed. At 12.8 percent, Illinois had the 13th-highest unionization rate among all states. A total of 707,829 people in Illinois were unionized in 2023, down from nearly 847,000 in 2015. 

The public sector unionization rate has declined by a total of 4.1 percentage points since the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a decision in Janus vs. AFSCME, from 52.1 percent to 48 percent. That ruling put an end to public sector unions being able to charge fees to individuals who benefit from union representation but choose not to join the union. 

Those fees, often referred to as “fair share” fees, helped unions better negotiate wage and benefit structures for all employees, regardless of whether they are part of the union. Without them, Manzo said, unions are required to represent those individuals without compensation. 

“It is true that the most significant contributor to the declines in Illinois’ unionization rate has been drops in worker bargaining power in the public sector that was sparked by a 2018 Supreme Court decision,” Manzo said. 

Another contributor to union participation decline is that the economy has added jobs in sectors with “low union densities,” like management, professional services, e-commerce and the gig economy, he said. At the same time, careers with long-standing union ties, such as mining and manufacturing, have either grown more slowly or “been lost altogether,” he said. 

But he added that other states, including many surrounding Illinois, have enacted “right-to-work” laws, which create “Janus-like conditions” in the private sector. 

Illinois’ Workers’ Rights Amendment – an amendment to the state constitution that was approved by voters in 2022 – “effectively bans those so-called right-to-work laws from ever coming to the state,” Manzo said. 

“And the data show that states that protect workers rights, like Illinois, have higher wages, faster wage growth and stronger unions compared to those that have weakened collective bargaining rights,” he said. 

While Illinois’ unionization rate was 12.8 percent in 2023, nearby states that have right-to-work laws – Iowa, Indiana, Kentucky and Wisconsin – had rates ranging from 7.1 percent to 8.8 percent. 

Average hourly earnings in Illinois were $36.82 in 2023, compared to rates of $28.82 to $31.84 in the four neighboring right-to-work states, although Illinois’ cost of living is generally higher than in those states, which don’t have a city comparable to Chicago’s size. 

Illinois’ wage growth from 2017 to 2023 was an average of 4.6 percent higher than those four states, based on the study’s review of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Current Population Survey data. Unionized Illinois workers earn about 12.6 percent more than non-union workers, per the same analysis. 

The study found Black workers, men, military veterans, and workers with master’s degrees have the highest unionization rates in Illinois.

Nationally, the U.S. added 135,000 new union members in 2023, following a gain of 277,000 union members in 2022, according to the report. Unions are also seeing near record-high support, with 67 percent of respondents viewing them favorably, per a Gallup poll cited in the report. 

“Despite dealing with an economy in transition and facing considerable legal challenges, unions are organizing new industries and improving job quality,” Manzo said. 

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government. It is distributed to hundreds of newspapers, radio and TV stations statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, along with major contributions from the Illinois Broadcasters Foundation and Southern Illinois Editorial Association.