About Migration Dialogue
Migration Dialogue provides timely, factual and nonpartisan information and analysis of international migration issues through five major activities: the newsletters Migration News and Rural Migration News, Changing Face and other Research & Seminars, and the Sloan West Coast Program on Science and Engineering Workers.
Contact us at migrant@primal.ucdavis.edu.
Rural Migration Blog: Unions: 10% of US Workers, 1% of Farm Workers
The share of US workers who were union members fell to 10 percent in 2022, down from 20 percent in 1983. The wage and salary workforce rose by 50 percent between 1983 and 2022 while the number of union members fell by 20 percent.
The W&S workforce rose 50%, and union membership fell 20%, 1983-2022
| Year | Wage and Salary (mils) | Union Members | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1983 | 90 | 18 | 20% |
| 2022 | 142 | 14 | 10% |
A third of public sector workers are union members, compared with six percent of private sector workers. Two states, HI and NY, have more than 20 percent of workers who are union members. A third of the 14 million US union members live in two states, CA with 2.6 million and NY with 1.7 million.
Union membership is also falling in other countries. In Australia, 12 percent of workers are union members, including eight percent of private sector workers, down from over 50 percent in the early 1980s. Some US states and Britain, Canada, India and Japan allow closed shop or agency shop arrangements, which means that employers and unions can sign agreements that require all employees to be union members or to pay most union dues. US right-to-work states do not allow such agreements; Michigan repealed its right-to-work in March 2023.
Most Read
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Rural Migration News
Rural Migration News summarizes the most important migration-related issues affecting agricultural and rural America, and is produced with the support of the Colcom, Giannini, and Walmart foundations.
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Rural Migration News Blogs
Rural Migration News blogs examine a particular farm labor, migration, or trade issue, and are produced with the support of the Colcom, Giannini, and Walmart foundations.
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Farm Labor and Mexican Produce Exports
The US imports over half of its fresh fruit and a third of its fresh vegetables, mostly from Mexico. This project, led by the Wilson Center's Mexico Institute and supported by the Walmart foundations, strengthens protections for Mexican workers employed throughout North America agriculture and works with stakeholders to implement evidence-based policies that improve worker protections.
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Migration News
Migration News was a monthly and later quarterly summary of the most important migration issues in the US, Europe, and Asia that was produced between 1994 and 2014 with the support of the German Marshall Fund of the United States and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
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Sloan West Coast Program On S&E Workers
The Sloan Program on Science and Engineering Workers supported researchers interested in how affected US workers employed in IT-related occupations between 2007 and 2014 with the support of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
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Changing Face & UFW Contracts
The Changing Face project assessed the effects of immigrant farm workers on agriculture and agricultural communities in California and other states between 1994 and 2016 with the support of the Farm and Rosenberg Foundations.
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Research & Seminars
Migration Dialogue organized seminars for opinion leaders to discuss comparative migration issues between 1993 and 2004 with the support of the German Marshall Fund of the United States.
