Rhode Island remains one of the most unionized states in the country, but the percentage of union members among its workforce dropped from 17.8% to 15.7% in 2021, according to recently released government figures.
Labor leaders say that decline was caused in part by the worker shortages experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic – particularly in heavily unionized sectors such as health care.
“There’s a significant workforce impact from the pandemic,” said Patrick J. Quinn, executive vice president of Service Employees International Union 1199 New England, which represents about 2,500 employees at Care New England Health System facilities.
Illustrating these staffing shortages, Lifespan Corp. earlier this month reported 2,300 job vacancies, compared with 800 before the pandemic.
Quinn said SEIU’s membership decreased slightly during the pandemic but has since bounced back to previous levels.
The data released on March 9 by the New England office of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that total union membership in Rhode Island dropped from 81,000 in 2020 to 75,000 last year. In the same period, however, the total number of people employed jumped from 455,000 to 474,000.
While the COVID-19 pandemic prompted significant changes across industries and throughout the workforce, the declining union membership is part of a longer-term trend, according to Roger Achille, a professor at Johnson & Wales University.
“It’s something we’ve seen throughout the country for the last 30 to 40 years,” Achille said.
Some trace this trend back to 1981, he noted, when President Ronald Reagan fired over 11,300 striking workers in the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization, sending “a chilling message to the union membership throughout the United States."
Over time, new laws to protect employees from discrimination and safety hazards may have also convinced more employees that they have sufficient job protection without a union, Achille said, and workers staying with jobs for shorter periods of time can make organizing more difficult.
During the pandemic, the decline of union membership in Rhode Island hasn’t been evenly spread throughout all sectors.
Teamsters Local 251, which represents workers in sectors such as transportation, manufacturing and distribution, as well as some health care employees, has noted an increase of at least 500 members since the start of the pandemic, said Matthew Taibi, Local 251 secretary-treasurer.
The local now has around 6,300 members. “From what we’ve seen, a lot of people want to be union,” he noted.
Taibi attributed this increase partially to the rise of e-commerce throughout the pandemic, which impacted shipping companies such as UPS Inc.
In addition, the Teamsters gained about 200 new school bus workers as members at the end of 2020, and 100 employees at a Narragansett manufacturer in early 2021.
Though Rhode Island’s overall union membership rates declined, Quinn said that the state remains a strong force for organized labor. Despite the drop, Rhode Island is the most unionized state in New England, according to the BLS report, and more than 5 percentage points ahead of the 2021 national average of 10.3%.
“If everyone else had 15% union density, we would have a much better economy,” Quinn said. “So we have a lot to teach the rest of the country.”
Jacquelyn Voghel is a PBN staff writer. You may reach her at Voghel@PBN.com.
