Union membership changed little in Ohio in 2023 after a hefty increase the year before, according to federal data released this week.
In 2023, 691,000 Ohio workers were represented by unions, a small decrease from the year before, according to the annual union membership report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. These included hourly and salaried employees in public and private sectors. In 2022, Ohio posted a hefty increase in workers being represented by unions. The state then ranked third for union membership growth.
With union membership staying about the same here last year, Ohio followed the national trend. However, Ohio continues to have a union membership rate above the national average. In Ohio, 12.5% of workers were members of unions in 2023. Nationally, it was only 10%.
Organizing, worker activism and public support for unions are all at generational highs. The numbers do not truly reflect what workers are achieving every day in communities across the nation, including here in Cleveland.
Leonard DiCosimo, who heads the North Shore AFL-CIO Federation of Labor
The BLS report not only included the number of workers represented by unions, but those who were also union members. Not all workers represented by a union choose to belong to one. The number of workers belonging to a union in Ohio in 2023 was 641,000, which was unchanged from 2022.
Leonard DiCosimo, who heads the North Shore AFL-CIO Federation of Labor, said membership numbers do not tell the entire story of union strength. For example, he said SEIU District 1199, which represents workers at Cleveland Clinic Lutheran Hospital, won members a 16% raise in the first year of their contract along with other benefits. AFSCME Local 1746, which represents workers at the Cuyahoga County Department of Children and Family Services, negotiated raising the lowest hourly wage from $16.35 to $19.25 as well as safer working conditions, he said.
“Organizing, worker activism and public support for unions are all at generational highs,” DiCosimo wrote Signal Cleveland in an email. “The numbers do not truly reflect what workers are achieving every day in communities across the nation, including here in Cleveland.”
Despite a slower growth for union membership in 2023, Ohio AFL-CIO President Tim Burga is encouraged. He referenced a poll done last year for the national AFL-CIO showing that 71% of Americans support unions. The results are similar to a Gallup Poll, also released last year, which looked at the same issue..
“The steady number of union members in Ohio shows that workers continue to want and demand a union in the workplace despite the best efforts of corporations to thwart union organizing,” Burga wrote in an email to Signal Cleveland. “Workers are fed up with stagnant wages and a lack of dignity and respect on the job, which is precisely why more are interested in joining a union now than ever before.”
Weekly earnings for nonunion workers were only 86 percent of what their union counterparts make, according to the union membership report. The average union member made $1,263. Non-union members only $1,090.
Other report highlights include:
- The union membership rate of public-sector workers is 32.5%. The rate for private sector workers is 6%.
- Men, at 10.5%, have a higher union membership rate than women. The rate for women is 9.5%
- Black workers, at 11.8%, have the highest union membership rate. The rate for white workers is 9.8%. For Asian workers it is 7.8% and 9% for Hispanic workers.