California’s labor movement notched a significant win in 2025, adding more than 100,000 union members and outpacing the national rate of growth, according to a sweeping new study produced by researchers across nearly every campus in the University of California system.
The study, called “State of the Unions,” was spearheaded by UCLA’s Institute for Research on Labor and Employment (IRLE) alongside the UC Berkeley Labor Center. Nine of the ten UC campuses contributed research or authorship, with UC San Francisco the sole exception. The document combines statistical analysis with detailed case studies tracking how organizing and bargaining shifted across the state last year.
Per the report’s opening chapter, compiled by the Berkeley Labor Center, 16.7% of California workers belonged to a union in 2025, up from 16.3% the year before. That places California well above the national average, even as union membership ticked upward across the country as a whole.
Yet growth in membership hasn’t translated smoothly into finalized contracts. Researchers found that of the bargaining units that formed in California during 2024, only half had reached a signed agreement by the spring of 2026 — underscoring how the path from unionization to a ratified contract can stretch on for years.
Justin McBride, program director at UCLA’s IRLE, pointed to a jump in demonstrations as one of the report’s more unexpected findings. “One of the findings that surprised me was that union protest activity increased in 2025 a lot,” he said, adding that the willingness of workers to take to the streets signals “a positive sign of a healthy labor movement despite some of the challenges.”
The report describes California as a leading center for strikes and worker demonstrations nationally. Although the total number of strikes dipped compared with 2024, protests aimed at federal-level policy drew heightened public and media attention throughout the year.
One of the report’s standout sections, also authored by the Berkeley Labor Center, examines the uphill battle rideshare drivers have faced in organizing, given their classification as independent contractors and the absence of a shared physical workplace. That dynamic shifted last October when California lawmakers passed legislation granting rideshare drivers formal collective bargaining rights.
Enrique Lopezlira, a program director at the UC Berkeley Labor Center, framed the development as part of a broader shift. “Our rideshare chapter highlights a different but related development that I think is especially significant: workers who have traditionally been excluded from conventional collective bargaining structures are developing new pathways to worker voice,” Lopezlira wrote in an email.
The coalition behind the report intends to make it an annual publication. McBride said the project can serve as a resource well beyond California’s borders. “For people from out of state, I think it’s a good repository of different strategies that workers are using in-state, where we do have fortunately a very strong and relatively successful labor movement,” he said.
