PROVIDENCE – Union membership rates in Rhode Island increased year over year in 2022, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, reversing course from a decline noted in 2021.
The Ocean State also remains the most highly unionized state in New England, according to BLS data, and is tied with California for the fourth-highest union membership rate in the country.
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According to the BLS, the percentage of Rhode Island workers in a union rose to 16.1% in 2022, up from 15.7% a year earlier. That works out to 81,000 union members in the Ocean State’s workforce in 2022, and an increase of 6,000 from 75,000 workers in 2021.
Rhode Island was one of 23 states and Washington, D.C. that saw an increase in the percentage of union members in its workforce, according to BLS data. Twenty-four states experienced a decline, and four saw no change year-over-year.
Jesse Martin, executive vice president of Service Employees International Union 1199 New England, was not surprised by Rhode Island’s increase, and doesn’t expect that union growth will slow down anytime soon.
Union drives among workers at large corporations, such as Starbucks and Amazon; improving public opinion on labor unions; and workplace shifts prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic have all contributed to a “historic shift” in union activity, Martin said, particularly among younger workers and those in the health care and service industries.
“Health care workers have seen death in the eye in nursing homes, hospitals and all sorts of care settings, and they’re sick of it,” Marin said.
“When you’ve looked death in the eye, a lot of other things just don’t scare you as much anymore,” he continued, including “behavior that the boss shows when someone stands up, when their coworkers stand up and and say they want a union.”
More than 200 new members joined SEIU 1199 in 2022, Martin said, bringing the health care union’s total representation to upwards of 5,000 in Rhode Island.
This year’s statistics mark a reversal of a 2021 decrease. The Ocean State’s union membership declined from 17.8% to 15.7% year-over-year in 2021, despite maintaining a high ranking nationally.
Since then, Martin said that increasing COVID-19 vaccination rates and economic pressures such as inflation have sparked new organizing energy.
Not all states have seen this same increase in membership rates: Nationwide, this figure declined year-over-year from 10.3% to 10.1%. between 2021 and 2022. This rate has long been on a downward trend, with the national union membership rate at 20.1% in 1983, the Rhode Island AFL-CIO notes.
While nationwide membership rates haven’t caught up to this figure, a Gallup Poll released in August 2022 indicates that U.S. public opinion is on an upswing, with 71% of Americans surveyed reporting that they approve of labor unions — the highest approval rate since 1965.
At 16.1%, Rhode Island’s union membership rate was well above the national average. The Ocean State also tied with California for the fourth-highest union membership rate in the U.S., behind Hawaii (21.9%), New York (20.7% and Washington (18%).
With the exception of Maine, all New England states had higher than average union membership.
But Rhode Island’s union membership rate rose above the rest of New England, the Rhode Island AFL-CIO said. Connecticut had the second-highest union membership rate in New England, at 14.1%, followed by Massachusetts [12.7%], Vermont [12.1%], New Hampshire [10.1%] and Maine [9.2%].
Jacquelyn Voghel is a PBN staff writer. You may reach her at Voghel@PBN.com.
Bad news for RI.