The financial status of national unions

Abstract

The longstanding concerted attacks on unions from multiple fronts in the United States have threatened to undermine labour's institutional security. Though much has been written on the nature and scope of labour's declining membership, less research exists on unions' financial state. We have addressed this void in several ways through an analysis of the finances of 53 major national unions in the United States over the years between 2006 and 2019. Our study has reported on the financial resources and performance of these 53 national unions on aggregated and disaggregated bases. Building from relevant theory, we have analysed an exploratory model to identify the determinants of variation in union financial resources and performance. We have shown that the unions' net worth over the 2006–2019 span deteriorated, though, in aggregation, their member-based income grew. The unions have maintained high levels of liquidity and resilience in their capacity to fund their operating budgets. Business Income has fallen as a share of overall net revenues. Disaggregated data have shown vast variation in financial resources and performance across unions and over time. Multivariate analyses suggest differences correlated with selected organizational and environmental factors, such as union density, earnings and membership levels.