While union membership dips nationally, a new report by the Illinois Economic Policy Institute and Project for Middle Class Renewal at the University of Illinois says two states that have strengthened laws on collective bargaining rights in recent years are seeing union membership increase. Michigan repealed its “right-to-work” law in 2023, and gained 15,000 members in 2024 after years of union membership decline, the report shows. Michigan’s action was the first reversal of a state “right-to-work” law in decades, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Meanwhile, Democrats in Washington state this year expanded bargaining rights for agricultural cannabis workers and ferry workers and corrections workers. The Illinois researchers say such laws, along with a 2018 Supreme Court ruling barring mandatory union fees for public employees, are major drivers of declining union membership nationally.