Despite attacks on working people by anti-worker billionaires, union membership is growing, fueled largely by an increase in public sector union membership.
That’s from the latest annual report on union membership by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), published today. The report affirms Gallup polling that shows Americans’ support for unions remains near all-time highs and makes clear that unions are growing in the United States, even in the face of an administration run by billionaires and hostile to workers’ rights.
AFSCME President Lee Saunders said the report shows the power of the union difference.
“Despite unrelenting attacks on working people, public service workers are organizing, securing strong contracts, expanding collective bargaining and building power in workplaces and communities,” Saunders said in a press release.
AFSCME itself grew by 5% in 2025, thanks to important victories across the country. This growth didn’t happen by chance but was thanks to workers taking action. For example:
- AFSCME’s Cultural Workers United campaign has grown to over 50,000 members nationwide across premier museums and libraries.
- Following a 2022 law that enshrined their collective bargaining rights — and that they helped make a reality — county workers in Colorado are forming unions.
- AFSCME members in Virginia helped elect pro-worker leaders currently working to expand collective bargaining rights to the vast majority of public workers in the state.
- In Utah, AFSCME members and a coalition of labor partners defeatedan anti-union effort in Utah that would have stripped public sector workers of their union rights on the job.
These victories span red states and blue states, large institutions and small workplaces and clearly demonstrate that support for unions is wide, deep and growing.
Saunders also said workers are leading the effort to create an economy that “puts working families first.”
“As corporations and billionaires continue to raise costs on everything from groceries to health care, workers understand that joining a union gives them the strength in numbers they need to fight for what they’ve earned, protect their freedoms and build a better future for their families,” he said.