Get organized: BLS report shows public service workers are organizing for a voice on the job

As anti-worker billionaires make life unaffordable, cut public services, undermine state & local budgets, & attack workers’ freedoms, state & local workers are organizing with AFSCME to fight for better wages, safety on the job and strong public services.

WASHINGTON – The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ annual numbers on union membership and earnings showed once again the power of the union difference. According to the report, union membership is growing, fueled largely by an increase in public sector union membership. With AFSCME members leading the charge, public service workers are fighting back against attacks on the services they provide and on their freedoms by organizing for a voice on the job. The report affirms Gallup polling that shows Americans’ support for unions remains near all-time highs and makes clear that unions are growing in the United States, even in the face of an administration run by billionaires and hostile to workers’ rights.

“Despite unrelenting attacks on working people, public service workers are organizing, securing strong contracts, expanding collective bargaining and building power in their workplaces and communities,” said AFSCME President Lee Saunders. “As corporations and billionaires continue to raise costs on everything from groceries to health care, workers understand that joining a union gives them the strength in numbers they need to fight for what they’ve earned, protect their freedoms and build a better future for their families. Together, we’re building an economy that puts working families first.”

AFSCME has grown by 5% in 2025 and secured major victories across the country. County workers in Colorado are forming unions following a 2022 law that enshrined their collective bargaining rights. AFSCME members in Virginia helped elect a pro-worker trifecta that is advancing landmark legislation to expand collective bargaining to vast majority of public workers in the state. All of these efforts could open the door for hundreds of thousands of more public service workers to finally have a powerful voice on the job.

AFSCME’s Cultural Workers United campaign helped fuel the 2025 rise in union membership, growing to over 50,000 members this year, working within premier museums and beloved libraries nationwide.

In addition to expanding collective bargaining in 2025, AFSCME members and a coalition of labor partners also defeated an anti-union effort in Utah that would have stripped public sector workers of their union rights on the job. They organized a ballot initiative that ultimately led elected officials to repeal the harmful law.

These victories span red states and blue states, large institutions and small workplaces and clearly demonstrate that support for unions is wide, deep, and growing.