Poll shows rising approval for unions among Americans, but membership remains low

<p>According to a Gallup poll, 52% of Republicans approve of labor unions, marking only the second time in 25 years that a majority of this group has expressed support. This data was released on September 3, 2026.</p><p>Despite the increasing approval for unions among Americans, union membership is at a modern low. Congress has consistently blocked significant labor initiatives, and House Republicans are currently investigating unions, even as their voter base shows support for them.</p><hr /><ul><li>While Republicans show approval for unions, 49% prefer that unions have less influence, compared to 19% who want them to have more.</li></ul><div>Data: Gallup Poll Social Series; Chart: Andrew Pantazi/Axios</div><p>Overall, 71% of Americans approve of unions, matching the approval level from 2022. The highest recorded approval was in 1959, at 73%.</p><ul><li>Approval rates are 89% among Democrats, 70% among independents, and 52% among Republicans. The only other instance of majority Republican approval since 2001 was in 2022.</li><li>A record 47% of Americans want unions to have more influence, more than double the 23% who want less influence. An additional 26% prefer that their influence remains the same.</li></ul><p>The current approval ratings reflect a significant shift from the Great Recession, when union approval fell to 48% in 2009, with 42% of Americans wanting unions to have less influence and only 25% wanting more.</p><p>Currently, only 11% of U.S. workers, or 16.5 million individuals, are represented by unions, compared to 23% or 20.5 million workers in 1983, the first year for which comparable data is available from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.</p><ul><li>In the most recent year, union representation accounted for less than 7% of private-sector workers.</li></ul><p>Workers are attempting to recover from previous declines in union representation. Union election petitions filed with the National Labor Relations Board more than doubled from 2021, reaching 3,286 in 2024. The agency received 2,633 election petitions last year, a decrease from the previous year's peak but still significantly higher than in earlier years.</p><ul><li>Despite the positive sentiment towards unions, only 27% of Americans expect unions to become stronger, while 39% anticipate a weakening, and 29% expect little change, according to Gallup polling.</li></ul><div>Data: Gallup Poll Social Series; Chart: Andrew Pantazi/Axios</div><p>Organized labor has struggled to convert Democratic control in Washington into significant legislative achievements, such as reforming federal laws to facilitate union membership and contract negotiations.</p><ul><li>The Employee Free Choice Act, a key priority at the beginning of the Obama administration, aimed to simplify the process for workers to unionize with majority card signatures but was never enacted despite Democratic majorities in both the House and Senate.</li><li>In 2021, the House passed the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, another major attempt to reform federal labor law, with support from five Republicans. However, it stalled in the Senate, where several Democrats also withheld their support.</li></ul><p>President Biden has utilized executive actions and appointments to promote union organizing, creating a task force to support this initiative and encouraging the NLRB to favor unionization efforts. In 2023, he became the first sitting president to join striking workers on a picket line, supporting autoworkers in Michigan.</p><ul><li>The political environment has shifted significantly; President Trump had previously used executive orders to revoke collective bargaining rights for many federal workers and dismissed pro-union officials from the labor board.</li></ul><p>Recently, House Republicans have increased their scrutiny of union leadership, launching investigations into several unions, including the United Auto Workers and the American Federation of Teachers, and requesting records related to their political activities.</p><p>In summary, while labor has regained some popularity lost during years of decline, the challenge remains in converting this goodwill into increased bargaining power and membership growth.</p><p>The Gallup survey included 1,200 U.S. adults surveyed by cellphone and landline from August 3 to August 24, with a margin of error of 4 percentage points.</p>