Unions Are on the Rise IN 2022. Four Graphs Show How Much.

Amazon, Apple, Chipotle, REI, Starbucks, Trader Joe’s. I feel like every day brings a new and amazing combination.

Workers are organizing in America’s most famous companies and industries previously thought unorganizable. They’re also doing so in the face of decades of declining union membership. Full of stories. This trend looks like unions are on the rise again.

Indeed, a set of recent data suggests that the interests of these unions are more than just headlines. From winning elections to collective action, 2022 has been a great year for unions so far. Unions won 641 elections in the first half of this year, according to data from Bloomberg Law, which analyzes data from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). This is the highest number in almost 20 years.

And while union wins at big names like Starbucks, which has more than 230 stores unionizing this year, certainly add to the overall picture, it’s not the only driver of union growth. As Bloomberg Law’s Robert Combs pointed out, 2022 would have surpassed last year’s numbers even without his coffee chain. Retail, hospitality, healthcare and transportation all saw union formation increase this year.

In total, there will be more NLRB election wins in 2022 than 80% in 2021, and these wins represent more than double the number of workers (43,150) as last year. The union has won nearly 77% of his elections this year, matching the highest percentage in Bloomberg data dating back to 2000.

Petitions for future elections increased nearly 60% in the first nine months of the fiscal year, according to the NLRB, so more elections are expected in the second half of the year, increasing the odds of winning.

Experts believe the increase in union organizing is partly due to the pandemic. During the global crisis, many companies that subsequently unionized referred to their employees as “essential workers,” but did not treat them as such when it came to wages, benefits and safety. The situation has prompted workers to organize, but they have a long way to go to reap the rewards.

For unions to live up to their promises, workers must negotiate and agree to contracts with their employers. Without the cooperation of employers, this is not an easy task. Starbucks, for example, has used various tactics to delay negotiations. So far, Starbucks has started negotiations with three of its more than 230 unionized stores.

Unions will probably have to resort to collective action, such as strikes, to get companies to bargain in good faith. it’s already happening.

Data provided to Recode by Johnny Karas, Project Director of the ILR Labor Action Tracker at Cornell University, shows that there were 180 strikes in the first half of this year, a 76% increase from last year. Even more impressively, those strikes included three times as many people as he did last year. These actions have the dual purpose of getting what unions want from employers and making the public aware of the union’s plight.

In general, increased union organizing has come amid, and probably contributed to, increased recognition of unions. About 71% of Americans will approve of their union in 2022, according to new Gallup survey data. The last time union recognition was this high was in 1965, when union membership was more than double what he is today.

It remains to be seen whether this high approval rating will lead politicians to enact reforms that would make labor unions less cumbersome in the first place. For now, all signs point to the union doing the best it can under the current circumstances.