Happy Labor Day weekend! These are the 10 most unionized cities in America

Connecticut is the sixth-most unionized state in the union, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. As such, it shouldn’t come as a major surprise that its capital, Hartford, and its surrounding metro area, is home to many union workers.

About 14.5% of workers in the Hartford-Middletown-East Hartford metro area are union members. That comes out to about 81,747 people of the total 562,300 people employed in the metro. When workers who are not themselves union members, but are covered by labor agreements, are factored in, representation is increased to 16%, or 90,086 workers.

And just one step behind Connecticut is California, the seventh-most unionized state in the U.S. and — of course — one of the most progressive. The San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad area is home to more than 1.4 million working people. Roughly 15.6% of those people are union members, or 218,491 people. When all people covered by labor contracts are considered, that figure jumps up to 17.6%, or 247,531 workers.

Last week, hundreds of hotel workers in downtown San Diego voted to authorize a strike after contract negotiations expired. San Diego hospital nurses and convention center workers launched brief strikes earlier in the summer.

Although Oregon is just barely one of the 10 states with the most union members — slightly beating out Minnesota — it is home to a lot of union protections.

And Portland — its largest city — is no different. Between Portland, Vancouver — which is in nearby Washington state — and Hillsboro, some 180,926 workers have joined labor unions. That’s 15.8% of the metro area’s more than 1.14 million worker residents. Some 16.8% of workers, 193,133 people, are covered by labor contracts.

About 4,500 Fred Meyer workers in Portland went on strike Wednesday across 28 locations, as negotiations with parent company Kroger have stalled over employee wages and retirement funding. In June, nurses represented by the Oregon Nurses Association went on what it called the largest nurses strike in the state’s history, citing a lack of engagement from Providence Health & Services.

Michigan — the home of the United Auto Workers union — is certainly no stranger to organized labor. About 15.8% of the 1.94 million workers in the Detroit-Warren-Dearborn area are union members; that comes out to 306,407 people. Another full percentage point gets added when workers covered by labor contracts are factored in, bringing that total to 327,113 workers.

The UAW on Friday said it would bring its concerns over behavior at a Detroit-area company to the union’s German counterpart. The UAW filed unfair labor practice charges against Webasto, a company that supplies parts for Ford Motor Co’s Bronco, earlier in August.

The metro area consisting of Providence, Rhode Island’s capital city, and Massachusetts’ Warwick is also home to a high percentage of union workers. Some 122,477 workers there are union members, counting for 16.2% of the area’s 755,483 working people. A total of 18% of the area’s laborers are covered by union contracts, or 136,074 people.

Workers at Omni Providence Hotel recently authorized a labor strike — more than seven months after their labor contract expired. Contracts at the Omni, Renaissance, and Graduate hotels have already expired or will by the of the year, the workers’ union told WPRI in July.

Washington is another state with major union representation, ranking behind just Hawaii and New York, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Some 576,000 workers in the state were union members last year — and more than half were in the Seattle-Tacoma-Belluevue area.

Of the 1.96 million workers there, 325,707 are union members, while a total of 352,346 were covered by union contracts. That comes out to 16.6% and 18% of the total working population, respectively.

Seattle has been home to a number of labor actions in recent months, as electrical workers, construction workers, and hotel workers go out on picket lines or authorize strike actions. Troubled aerospace firm Boeing is still “really far apart” in negotiations with its largest union before their contract expires on Sept. 12. The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers wants Boeing to commit to building its next jet in the Seattle area, among other demands.

Well, it didn’t take long for California to show up again (Spoiler alert: The Golden State has another appearance in just a bit). The Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario metro area is home to 1.85 million workers, including 329,984 union members. That’s almost 18% of the working population.

When combined with workers covered by unions, a total of 411,934 are under contracts. That’s 22.2% of the working population of that metro area, which is sometimes referred to as the Inland Empire and covers more than 27,000 square miles.

In July, workers at Amazon’s air hub in San Bernardino briefly walked off the job to protest the company’s alleged unfair labor practices. That strike was timed to coincide and disrupt the tech giant’s Prime Day marketing event.

The Big Apple is, well, kinda big. So is the metro area it’s included in.

Between New York City, Newark, and Jersey City, more than 8.85 million people are actively working and employed. Just over 18% — 1.6 million — of those workers are members of unions. That’s boosted to 1.72 million people when workers who are represented by unions and labor contracts, but aren’t actually dues-paying members, are factored in.

Strikes are fairly common in those cities. Uber and Lyft drivers represented by the New York Taxi Workers Alliance are threatening to go on strike. That group of more than 20,000 cabbies and drivers are planning to march on New York City Hall next week, where they will “give notice” of a potential strike.

Energy giant Con Edison, which provides services to New York City and Westchester County, barely averted a strike from 8,000 utility workers in June. Legal services workers held their longest strike in more than 20 years earlier this year, according to the United Auto Workers union.

And California is back. The Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom area might not be as massive as the Inland Empire, but more of its workers are union-represented.

More than 190,600 workers in the metro area are union members, or 19.7% of the 968,122 people employed across the district. That jumps up to 211,139 people, or 21.8% of the working population, when people represented by unions are also factored in.

Sacramento is currently in the middle of a strike launched by Sacramento County attorneys, such as public defenders, after months of negotiations. Workers are seeking pay raises and retroactive pay in order to keep experienced attorneys in the office and keep up with the area’s cost of living.

Buffalo, New York, the home of the Starbucks union, is part of the most unionized metro area in the U.S. The Buffalo-Cheektowaga area is home to 460,560, working individuals, more than 23% — 108,420 people — of whom are union members.

A total of 119,015 of workers in the area are represented by unions, whether they’re card-carrying members or not. That comes out to more than a quarter of the area’s workers, or 25.8%.

Although Buffalo’s best known union these days may be Starbucks Workers United, the area is home to plenty of others. More than 800 University at Buffalo resident physicians in the area aim to go on strike on Sept. 4 and 5 after negotiations with employer University Medical Resident Services failed to end in a deal last week, according to local news outlet WIVB.