Big Labor loses: Wisconsin union membership hits all-time low in 2021

Union membership in Wisconsin is about half of what it was a little over a decade ago.

The latest numbers from the Department of Labor show a steep drop in union membership in Wisconsin since 2009.

In 2009, nearly 385,000 people were union members in the state. That was about 15% of the workforce.

BLS said, as of 2021, that number fell to 215,000 union members, or 7.9% of the state’s workforce.

Wisconsin saw two steep drops in union membership, the first after former Gov. Scott Walker signed Act 10 into law in 211, and the second after Gov. Walker signed the state’s Right to Work law in 2015.

“To lose 12,000 members in one year and over 170,000 members since 2009 proves that Big Labor needs forced coercion to survive and shows us why it was so important for former Governor Walker and the Republican Legislation to pass worker freedom. Wisconsinites are voting with their feet and they are walking away from the labor movement,” Brett Healy with the MacIver Institute told The Center Square.

Healy said the drop in union membership has shifted who is the face of organized labor in the state. Bureau of Labor Statistics data states that a union member now is five times more likely to be a government employee than a private sector employee.

“The continuing decline in the number of Wisconsinites who belong to a union shows that most people, if allowed to decide for themselves, choose to keep their hard-earned money and do not think there is value in joining a union,” Healy explained. “For far too long, our country and our state kowtowed to unions and we allowed unions to force people to join their organization and pay dues.”

The drop in Wisconsin’s union membership mirrors a drop in national union membership as well.

In the past decade, Healy said, unions nationwide lost 8.6% of their membership, decreasing from 15.3 million union members in 2009 to 14 million in 2021. Wisconsin has lost 44% of its union memberships over the same time period.

“Lawmakers should see these numbers as proof that personal freedom and liberty are always the best prescription. To make the joining of the union voluntary puts the individual back in charge of their life and their destiny and it takes away that power from the union and the government,” Healy added.