The labor movement is growing, sisters and brothers, and the IBEW is helping to lead the way.

That’s according to new data released in February by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which showed 463,000 new workers represented by union contracts in 2025.

The growth brings the percentage of wage and salary workers in the U.S. who belong to a union to 11.2%, the highest it’s been in 16 years.

Now, I don’t have to tell you that 11.2% is still way too low. At the IBEW, we’re working hard to do our part, organizing new members faster than we have in half a century.

There’s an enormous amount of work out there for IBEW members, but there’s also an enormous appetite for the stability and protection of a union contract.

Nearly 70% of Americans support unions, and more than 50 million workers say they’re ready to join one.

But we know what they’re up against.

Labor laws protect workers only when they’re enforced, and enforcement under this administration is nearly nonexistent. You can read more about that in this issue’s “Trump Administration’s Labor Law Enforcement All but Disappeared in 2025.”

Union busters are emboldened to unleash vicious, often illegal, tactics to stop organizing movements in their tracks, because they know they have a National Labor Relations Board that will look the other way or — worse — back their underhanded tactics with new federal policy.

OSHA inspections and wage-and-hours enforcement actions are down dramatically under this administration.

State right-to-work laws continue to diminish union power by splitting groups of workers into members and non-members, pitting them against one another instead of uniting them against the corporations determined to pay them less.

Still, workers are responding by finding ways to form or join unions all over the U.S.

In fact, nearly half of all union growth came from states in the South, fueled by young workers who refuse to be deterred by their states’ long and sometimes tortured history with union labor.

Even workers in the much-maligned public sector, who show up to do their jobs every day despite being regularly used as political punching bags, have seen the value in union membership. They’re joining in droves to help combat near constant attacks on their contracts, their right to organize and even their very existence.

Working people aren’t stupid, despite what the billionaire class might think. When they feel attacked, taken advantage of, priced out of their hopes and dreams, they respond by organizing and fighting back.

That fight is fueling our movement’s growth, and the IBEW stands ready to fight right alongside all working families.