Sources
Sources and Methods
Unions
Union directorySources last checked Oct 22, 2026
- Unions Listed
- 19,221
- From OLMS Filings
- 18,774
- Central Labor Councils
- 398
- With Officers Listed
- 13,124
Counts
| Kind | Count |
|---|---|
| Locals | 16,921 |
| Joint Councils | 65 |
| District Councils | 843 |
| Trades Councils | 329 |
| Central Labor Councils | 398 |
| State Federations | 67 |
| State Bodies | 436 |
| National or International Unions | 153 |
| Other | 9 |
| Source | Count |
|---|---|
| OLMS filings | 18,774 |
| AFL-CIO directories | 334 |
| Union websites | 163 |
| Northwestern Pennsylvania Area Labor Federation | 30 |
| California Federation of Labor Unions: Central Labor Councils | 21 |
| ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer | 8 |
| Central New York Area Labor Federation | 7 |
| Eastern Connecticut Area Labor Federation | 5 |
| Hudson Valley Area Labor Federation | 5 |
| Oregon Labor Federation: Chapters & Central Labor Councils | 5 |
| Western Connecticut Area Labor Federation | 5 |
| Western Mass Area Labor Federation | 4 |
| Listed on Carpenters union directory | 3 |
| Mid-America Carpenters Regional Council local union offices list | 3 |
| Rochester-Genesee Valley Area Labor Federation | 3 |
| Listed on ATU conferences and councils page | 2 |
| Listed on DC 37 local unions page | 2 |
| Upper Peninsula Regional Labor Federation: Contact | 2 |
| Council and Federation Pages Cited for One Union Each | 245 |
| Report | Count |
|---|---|
| LM-2 (receipts of $250,000 or more) | 4,529 |
| LM-3 (receipts under $250,000) | 8,321 |
| LM-4 (receipts under $10,000) | 5,106 |
| No OLMS Filing | 447 |
| Officer source | Count |
|---|---|
| From LM-2 reports | 4,448 |
| From LM-3 reports | 8,295 |
| From union websites | 457 |
Data Sources
- OLMS Online Public Disclosure Room (opens in new tab) (U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Labor-Management Standards): LM-2, LM-3 and LM-4 annual reports. Unions that represent private-sector, postal or federal workers file one each year. Name, address, affiliation, membership and report type come from each union's latest report since 2023.
- labordata.bunkum.us (opens in new tab), Forest Gregg's public mirror of the OLMS data. The build script reads its filings table (opens in new tab).
- Officer lists from the officer and employee schedules (opens in new tab) of LM-2 and LM-3 reports.
- Phone numbers from the signature block of each union's latest LM-2, LM-3 or LM-4 report on the OLMS site, where the president and treasurer each give a number. A listing shows the first signer's number with their name and title, unless the union publishes an office number of its own, which takes its place.
- AFL-CIO (opens in new tab) directories of state federations and central labor councils.
- Union websites found by research. Each listing links the page its website, officers or contacts came from.
- Social media accounts linked from each union's own homepage. An account linked from several unions' sites is kept only on the parent body that runs it, such as a state federation.
- Zip code centers for radius search from the Census Bureau gazetteer files (opens in new tab).
How It Is Populated
-
scripts/build-unions.tsrefreshes the directory from OLMS filings. It takes the latest report for each file number, sorts each union into a kind by its designation code, and places it at the center of its zip code. -
scripts/discover-union-sites.tsgives an AI agent with web search a batch of unions and has it find each one's website and officer contacts, recording the page each fact came from. Matt Bruenig builds his Union Contracts database the same way, with language models searching the web for contract PDFs; by his own count it holds 2,097 agreements and grows by 5 to 10 a day. - Planned: manual entry through the Suggest an Edit form on each union's page, with each submission reviewed before it is published.
- Planned: claimed profiles. A union will be able to claim its listing, as a business claims its page on Yelp: an officer or staff member shows they speak for the union, then confirms or corrects its address, contacts and officers.
Known Gaps
- A union's address is where it files from, not where its members work. A local based in one city can represent workers across a whole state, and radius search measures from the filing address.
- Central labor councils rarely file with OLMS, so they come from AFL-CIO directories and their own websites. The directory has 398 central labor councils.
- LM-4 reports list no officers. 5,106 listings come from an LM-4 report and show officers only when a website or a claim adds them.
- Unions made up only of state and local government workers do not file with OLMS. They appear only when research finds them.
- Membership is what each union reported on its latest filing. Unions count members differently: some include retirees, associate members or members who pay no dues, so figures are not comparable across unions. 1,365 listings have no membership figure.
- Websites and officer contacts are still being found: 495 of 19,221 unions have a website on file and 13,124 list officers.
- The Suggest an edit and Claim this profile forms do not save submissions yet.