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Texas Union Membership Reaches 25-Year High

Texas AFL-CIO
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TEXAS – Today, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released its annual report on union density in the country, showing that the number of Texas union members is at the highest it’s been in 25 years.

In 2025, the number of Texas members of unions reached 673,000 — marking a 70,000 member jump from 2024 and continuing a four-year period of growth. Texas also now has the fourth-most union members of any state in the U.S., following California, New York, and Illinois (surpassing New Jersey, Ohio, and Pennsylvania in 2025).

“The Texas labor movement is steadily growing — all despite Greg Abbott’s anti-worker attacks, broken labor laws, and corporate union busting,” said Texas AFL-CIO President Leonard Aguilar. “We can change our state for the better by investing in and growing our union movement, because as Texas goes, so does the country. Our work to organize Texas workplaces and build worker power is more important than ever before.”

Texas union membership numbers over 25 years

Whether you’re a teacher, firefighter, farm worker, actor, public employee, nurse, construction worker, or any other profession — joining a union is your right. Nothing about Texas’s status as a so-called “right to work” state prevents union organizing, and unions are at historic levels of popularity in polls. The rise in Texas union membership reflects that popularity.

These numbers also reflect the growing influence of labor unions in the state. As state parties try to reconnect with the working class, union endorsements mean more than they ever had before – and union candidates like Texas State Senator-elect Taylor Rehmet carry messaging that uniquely resonates with Texas voters.

Nationwide Impact:

Thanks to years of sustained organizing, 11.2% of all wage and salary workers in the U.S. are now covered under union contracts, up from 2024 and the highest in 16 years.

“Billionaire bosses and union-busting politicians have tried to throw the kitchen sink at working people and their unions—slashing our jobs and rigging the rules to scare us out of organizing— but they are failing,” said AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler. “Working people are experiencing relentless attacks on our freedoms and our livelihoods. These numbers confirm what we’ve seen in the labor movement: Workers have felt President Trump’s billionaire-first agenda in action and are hungry to take back their power. Workers know that the best check on a bad boss is a strong union contract. In 2026, workers will continue to organize in every corner of the country and build power to fight for the lives they deserve.”

“Labor is one of the last institutions in this country that working people actually trust,” added Shuler. “Nearly 70% of Americans support unions and more than 50 million more workers are eager to join one—but broken labor law still has the deck stacked against them. Too many face vicious union-busting and retaliation for organizing and punishing lay-offs even as corporate bosses rake in profits. When Trump shut down the National Labor Relations Board from functioning by denying it a quorum, workers were forced to wait—beyond their own bosses’ delaying tactics—for their elections to be certified and legal justice to be served.”

The new report shows undeniable energy across the country:

  • Years of organizing in new industries, workplaces, and in “right to work” states in the South have pushed nationwide union density to 10%.

  • Nearly half of all union growth came from Southern states, with younger workers organizing at a rapid pace.

  • The number of public sector workers represented by a union grew by 236,000, up to 36.4% of that workforce.

  • Despite the biggest act of union-busting in history, union density among federal workers grew to over 31%—the largest single-year increase since 2011—as workers responded to DOGE-driven attacks aimed at stripping away collective bargaining rights and driving experts out of their jobs.

  • Private sector union representation grew to add 227,000 workers, with significant gains in health care, retail, education services and construction.

  • Workers are looking to the labor movement for solutions as artificial intelligence (AI) threatens their jobs and basic rights. Already, the White House is barreling ahead with its billionaire-first “AI Action Plan” and empowering CEOs to use AI as an excuse to slash payrolls, with 7% of planned job cuts attributed to the new technology.

“Politicians face a clear mandate to stand up to union-busting bosses, whether they are in the corner office or the oval office,” Shuler said. “We call on Congress to pass the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act and the Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act, and to reverse the single largest act of union-busting in American history by passing the Protect America's Workforce Act in the Senate.”

Polling shows support for labor unions:

Resources:

The BLS data on union membership are collected as part of the Current Population Survey (CPS), a monthly sample survey of about 60,000 eligible households that obtains  information on employment and unemployment among the nation's civilian noninstitutional population age 16 and over.

Annual estimates for 2025 are 11-month averages that exclude October. Data for October 2025 were not collected due to the federal government shutdown.

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The Texas AFL-CIO is the state labor federation consisting of more than 250,000 affiliated union members and advocates for working people in Texas. Learn more at texasaflcio.org