LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Kentucky unions flexed their muscle last couple years with high-profile contract fights against United Parcel Service and Ford Motor Co., and they brought young service-sector workers into the fold by organizing coffee shops like Heine Bros. and grocery stores like Trader Joe’s.
The share of union workers in Kentucky ticked up for the second consecutive year in 2023, bucking the national trend, according to an annual federal survey released this week.
Labor leaders said the figures reflect renewed energy in unionism, which has generally declined in Kentucky and the nation as a whole since the 1980s.
“You’re just seeing a lot of different folks wanting to organize, to unionize,” said Todd Dunn, president of the Greater Louisville Central Labor Council — an umbrella group for local unions — and the leader of UAW Local 862, which represents Ford auto workers.
However, the government’s annual survey isn’t detailed enough to discern reasons for year-to-year changes in union workers at the state level, said Michael Clark, an economist and director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Kentucky.
“While the increase in Kentucky might reflect greater interest in unions among workers, it could also simply reflect employment growth in sectors with more union representation such as manufacturing,” Clark told WDRB News in an email. “For much of 2023, employment in Kentucky’s manufacturing sector was growing faster than total employment and faster than manufacturing employment nationally.”
Clark also noted that the annual survey has a large margin of error at the state level, so annual fluctuations may not indicate a real phenomenon.
Figures show 8.8% of Kentucky workers were union members in 2023, up from 7.9% the year before. The rate also went up in Indiana, from 7.4% to 8%. Neither state has the same union density as before so-called “right to work” laws were passed ensuring that workers can opt out of supporting unions with their paychecks.
The 2023 figures don’t change the long-term trend of declining unionization, particularly in private sector jobs.
But Dustin Reinstedler, president of the Kentucky AFL-CIO, said unions have made real gains the last couple of years amid a tight job that gives workers more leverage with employers.
“People are beginning to see their value, and unions are helping them realize that,” he said.
