The number of annual union petitions in the state has more than doubled in recent years, suggesting interest in unionization is on the rise even as the share of Wisconsin workers in unions has fallen substantially.
Wisconsin had a total of 47 union petitions filed with the National Labor Relations Board in fiscal year 2024, which ran from Oct. 1, 2023 to Sept. 30, 2024. That marked a 114% increase since fiscal year 2021, when 22 petitions were filed. That number was 28 for fiscal year 2022 and 25 for fiscal year 2023.
The increase in Wisconsin is part of a regional trend, the NLRB figures show. Midwest states had a 138% increase in union petitions over the same period, which is the highest percentage increase of any region in the country.
By percentage, Wisconsin is on the low end for these increases: Ohio had a 226% increase; Indiana had a 187% increase; Michigan saw a 160% increase; and Minnesota had a 124% increase. Among nearby states, only Illinois had a smaller percentage change with 95%.
Filing a union petition with the NLRB is just the first step toward unionizing, and the process of moving from an election to signing a contract with an employer often results in “a pretty substantial waiting game,” Dresser said. Despite the interest indicated by the rise in petitions, she noted the share of unionized workers in the workforce has actually been declining.
Between 2000 and 2021, the percentage of employed Wisconsinites in unions plummeted from 17.8% to 7.9%, putting the state below the national average of 10.3% for the year. That’s according to a Wisconsin Policy Forum report from 2022 documenting the decline of unions in the state.
Ben Straka, research and government affairs associate for the Washington-based conservative think tank Freedom Foundation, argues the NLRB union petition data “don’t bear out the picture that union leaders and their allies in government would like to paint.” He also noted union membership rates continue to decline.
“What’s arguably more interesting than the total number of filings touted by (President) Biden’s NLRB is the frequency of employee decertification efforts that the current administration has actively made it harder to pursue,” Straka said in an emailed statement. “Over the past eight years, for every three attempts made by unions to organize workers in Wisconsin, there’s been at least one attempt by employees to change or get rid of their union.”