Are More Nurses Joining Unions – And Is It Actually Helping?

Image source: Google Trends

If you’ve felt a shift in the conversation in the breakroom lately, you aren't imagining things. While "burnout" was the buzzword of the early 2020s, the nursing profession is moving into a new phase: action.

2025 set the stage with surging labor activity, and the first few months of 2026 have already delivered results. From historic ratification votes in New York City to massive picket lines in California, nurses are securing wins that go far beyond simple cost-of-living adjustments.

But beyond the headlines, what do the numbers actually say? Are more nurses really joining unions, and more important, is it changing life at the bedside? Here's what the latest data tells us about the state of nurse unions right now.

The "Union Boom" is Real

For years, union participation in the U.S. had been on a slow decline, but that trend has reversed. A new report released this month by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) reveals that 16.5 million workers were represented by a union in 2025. That is an increase of 463,000 workers from the previous year and the highest total number of unionized workers in 16 years.

Those numbers cover all industries, but the report specifically highlights "particularly large gains in healthcare and social assistance.” The EPI report further notes that over 50 million non-union workers wanted to join a union last year but did not have that option, signaling a massive gap between those who have representation and those who want it.

What Nurses Are Searching For (Literally)

While the EPI report gives us a concrete look at data through the first part of 2025, Google search data suggests the momentum is accelerating even faster than the official counts show.

Google Trends data reveals a spike in searches for "nurse union" and "nursing union" beginning in the second half of 2025, breaking five-year records and continuing its vertical climb into early 2026.

Source: Google Trends

This digital surge is significant because it often precedes physical action. Before a petition is filed or a card is signed, the idea starts with a question. The data suggests that many nurses are currently in the "information gathering" phase, researching their rights and options at a rate we haven't seen before.

This digital curiosity aligns with the motivations nurses reported in recent Nurse.org research: 72% of nurses support strike action—even those who haven't participated—with the vast majority citing safe staffing, not pay, as their primary driver. Furthermore, while most nurses feel informed about their rights to organize, a significant knowledge gap remains for the remaining 26%, explaining why so many are hitting Google's search bar.

 

When Nurses Vote, We Win

Perhaps the most striking statistic comes from the ballot box. According to the 2025 Labor Activity in Healthcare Reports by People Results, when healthcare workers manage to get a union election scheduled, they are overwhelmingly choosing to organize.

The data shows that unions won 90% of the elections held in healthcare in 2024 and 87% during the first half of 2025, among the highest win rates in a decade. This suggests that once a campaign reaches the voting stage, the resolve among nurses and healthcare staff is nearly unshakable.

It’s About "Moral Injury," Not Just Money

Why this sudden resolve? A December 2025 essay in STAT News by nurse Theresa Brown spotlights nurses at UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital in Pittsburgh who unionized to fight chronic understaffing and protect patient care.

One nurse said pre-pandemic shifts felt like being “slammed all the time,” and during Covid they turned “apocalyptic” with impossible workloads. A neonatal nurse practitioner described a near-miss where inadequate staffing meant a baby’s anti-seizure medication dropped off the electronic list for days before it was caught because nurses were “putting out fires” all day long.

Brown writes that these nurses see unionization as “hope” amid a profit-driven system where UPMC executives earn large salaries while frontline staffing remains dangerously low. For them, strikes are about ending the moral distress of knowing patients suffer due to ratios, not just negotiating a paycheck.

What Nurses Are Saying

The sentiment on the floor mirrors the national data. The Medscape 2025 Nurse Unions Report found that 42% of nurses expect the pace of union elections to increase over the next five years.

The report estimates that between 16% and 20% of nurses are currently unionized. Crucially, those who are in unions largely expressed positive feelings about their representation, citing effective advocacy for better working conditions. However, the report also found a hidden divide, where only 1 in 9 non-union nurses said organizing was currently being discussed in their workplace, suggesting that while the trend is growing, it hasn't reached every unit yet.

Is Unionizing Helping?

The data points to "yes." The EPI report confirms that unionized workers earn 13% higher wages and have better access to benefits like paid sick leave compared to their non-union counterparts. And beyond economics, the high election win rates and the stories from the front lines suggest that for many nurses, a union is becoming the preferred tool to regain a voice in clinical practice.

As we move through 2026, the question isn't whether nurses will organize, but how quickly healthcare systems will adapt to a workforce that has found its collective voice.

🤔Nurses, do you think union participation is increasing? Share your thoughts below. 

Nurse.org Analysis