The share of U.S. workers who belong to a union fell slightly to 10% in 2023, from 10.1% a year earlier, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

As a scholar of organized labor, I’m not shocked by this slight decline, although if there was ever a year to expect the unionization rate to increase, it was 2023.

Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest labor federation that unites 60 unions, has proclaimed 2023 “the year of labor.” She wasn’t exaggerating.

Successful walkouts by Hollywood actors and screenwriters, autoworkers and health care professionals demonstrated how effective strikes can be in achieving union gains.

And a serious threat of a strike produced a historic contract for hundreds of thousands of UPS workers. Combined with the continuation of union-organizing victories at companies such as Starbucks and Trader Joe’s, it certainly seemed like 2023 was, as a New York Times headline proclaimed, “Labor’s very good year.”

Why would all that successful labor organizing........

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