Connecticut has most unionized public sector in the country

Between 2018 and 2023, the number of public sector union members in Connecticut surged, making Connecticut the state with the highest percentage of unionized public sector workers in the country, and the fifth-highest rate of overall union membership, according to the latest numbers from Unionstats.com

The figures, derived from Census data, show 15.8 percent of the state’s entire workforce is a union member, and 16.9 percent of workers are covered by a collective bargaining agreement. Those percentages have stayed relatively steady, but the actual numbers of union members have increased, even as Connecticut’s workforce has decreased.

Part of the reason is a surge in public sector union membership, which has counterbalanced a decline in the private sector. Sixty-seven percent of Connecticut’s public sector are part of a union and 68.7 percent are covered by a collective bargaining agreement, marking a nearly 5-point increase from 2018, an addition of 16,000 public sector union members.

As of 2023, Connecticut’s public sector union membership rate is higher than any other state in the country, including states like California (51.2 percent), New York (63.7 percent), and Illinois (46.1 percent).

In 2018, those figures were slightly different, with New York and Rhode Island both showing a higher percentage of union membership in the public sector than Connecticut. While New York stayed steady, Rhode Island saw a steep decline from 64.4 percent of its public sector workforce in 2018 to 47 percent in 2023.

However, the numbers also show a drop off in private sector union numbers for Connecticut – possibly a result of the pandemic – mirroring the drop off in Connecticut’s total labor force. In 2018, Connecticut showed a labor force of 1.677 million; by 2023 that figure was 1.611 – figures that are slightly behind the Connecticut Department of Labor non-farm labor force figures.

Similarly, private sector union membership dropped off, even as public sector union membership increased. Between 2018 and 2023, private sector union membership dropped from 8.3 percent in 2018 to 6.7 percent in 2023, marking the loss of about 28,000 private sector union members, including large decreases in both the manufacturing and construction sectors.

Both sectors have seen decades-long declines in employment, according to Connecticut Department of Labor numbers. The manufacturing industry has thousands of job openings , according to reports by the Connecticut Business and Industry Association, but few qualified applicants to fill those jobs.

Meanwhile, the government sector is growing, and state and local government employee unions have been able to unionize more of the workforce, particularly management at the state level.

The Connecticut legislature recently approved a wage-reopener contract negotiated between Gov. Ned Lamont and the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition, awarding a fourth round of raises and step increases for state employees.

Lamont and lawmakers will face another round of negotiations for state employee wage contracts in the next year and will soon have to craft a successor agreement to a 1997 deal between Gov. John Rowland and SEBAC that controls state employee pensions and benefits.

The agreement was amended several times during the difficult budget years of Gov. Dannel Malloy’s administration resulting in billions’ worth of givebacks by the unions, including wage freezes, higher pension contributions, and increased healthcare costs in exchange for extending the contract for an additional ten years.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) 2023 report, 10 percent, or 14.7 million workers nationwide, are union members with nearly an even split between the public and private sectors. However, the union membership rate for the public sector is five times higher than that of the private sector.

Hawaii had the highest rate of union membership overall, with 24.1 percent, followed by New York, Washington, and New Jersey. The states with the lowest rates of union membership were South Carolina (2.3 percent), North Carolina (2.7 percent), Arizona (4.2 percent), and Louisiana (4.3 percent).

The post Connecticut has most unionized public sector in the country appeared first on Connecticut Inside Investigator .