Though laborers have the right to unionize, we find that according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, that in 2024, just 5.9% of private sector workers were unionized, and that the overall total for laborers was a mere 9.9%. This is especially troubling because the 2025 Gallup poll indicated that approximately 68% of Americans approve of labor unions. Therefore, the disconnect between active union membership and the fact that 2/3rd of Americans approve of unions doesn’t seem to make sense and sure doesn’t seem right, especially considering that laborers are legally permitted to unionize but somehow aren’t very successful at accomplishing this.
The bottom line is that private enterprise, with very few exceptions, does not have an interest in, and strongly prefers that its employees not be unionize, which quite obviously is because they appreciate the ability to dictate to their workers, the terms and conditions of their employment, in addition to in many a case, being able to terminate a given employee for no reason, other than their pursuit of profit, above all. It so follows, therefore, that private employees aren’t going to embrace unions, because as it stands currently, they are truly having their cake and eating it too.
This would surely indicate that in order for America to become more unionized, it’s going to need the help and aid of its governance, but regrettably the government of this nation, statewide and nationwide, seems to have been captured by private enterprise so that the government in many cases, doesn’t do anything of merit to help provide the path forward for more union membership, and basically thereby does nothing to encourage or to enable such.
So too, the reason why we see that the superrich and elites of America are able to garner more and more of the wealth of America into their sticky hands has a whole lot to do with the fact that far too many employees are exploited and that they do not get the wage benefits that are not only more appropriate for the labor that they provide but also in many a case aren’t provided with even a living wage, in this the richest nation in the world. This signifies that because of the lack of union membership, and the corresponding fact that so many Americans struggle from paycheck to paycheck, as well as often lacking the security of steady employment, that to make up this shortfall requires extensive welfare programs, which would not be so necessary if there were a higher percentage of jobs that were unionized.
All of the above indicates that the powers that be appear to hold all of the cards, which doesn’t look to be something that will change anytime soon, so that the trendline that we see today, of unions in the private sector, essentially becoming an irrelevance, reflects that those who are in the highest echelons of power are satisfied that this is the way that things ought to be, or if not exactly that, have little or no interest in seeing that they change for the better – leaving those who honestly labor but aren’t compensated enough to never have the fair opportunity to obtain the American dream