(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — More workers in Illinois filed to unionize in 2022 than at any point since 2014, according to a new report from the nonprofit Illinois Economic Policy Institute and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Frank Manzo, an economist with the institute and a researcher for the report, said the findings “offer good news for the labor movement.”
Despite the growth in unionization filings and national union membership growth for the first time since 2017, overall union membership in Illinois and Chicagoland declined in 2022. Manzo said the decline reflected “broader labor market trends.”
Those trends include job growth industries with a relatively lower rate of unionization, including the service industry, as well as an increased number of vacancies in state and local governments, which are traditionally heavily unionized.
Illinois ranks 12th in the nation when it comes to the unionization rate of workers in the state.
A spokesman for the Illinois Economic Policy Institute noted that more young people are becoming union members, too. The unionization rate for workers between the ages of 25 – 34 rose by 2.3 percentage points. Meanwhile, unionization rates among older workers declined in 2022.
Manzo added that Illinois’ passage of the Workers’ Rights Amendment should position the state for more union membership growth.
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