Modern Union Contract 2025: LaborStrong Guide
Labor unions have a strong place in the history of working life in the U.S. Many of the rights and respect workers now receive as a matter of law were hard-fought for by unions. But the modern workforce is changing, and so are the expectations workers have for their unions.
The core of worker protections—pay, benefits, and safety—remain essential to today’s workers. But newer generations demand more forward-looking protections. The modern union contract is a kind of “wish list” for the future of work: what union leaders should prioritize to keep the union movement and its members relevant in the future.
The 2025 LaborStrong survey confirmed that younger workers still trust unions, but they also want unions to evolve. They want unions to address the concerns and needs of newer generations: things like artificial intelligence (AI), hybrid work, and work-life balance.
Let’s break down what that means for the modern union contract.
Rethinking the Traditional Contract
The traditional union contract relies on several long-held assumptions about the workforce. Workers would generally stay with one employer throughout their career and gradually move up through the ranks. These assumptions were also part of a greater economic and social environment that was largely defined by the industrial era, leading to the core aspects of labor contracts that have persisted for generations: wages, benefits, job classifications, seniority, and grievance procedures. While these are still essential in many sectors and were effective and comprehensive in the industrial era, traditional contracts don’t reflect the workplace dynamics of the 21st century.
As a result, younger workers are pushing unions to shift their priorities. For example, the 2025 LaborStrong survey shows Generation Z (born between 1997 and 2012) wants unions to pay more attention to work-life balance than incremental wage increases.
The upshot is that if unions want to retain their current goodwill among workers of all generations, they have to begin negotiating not just for protection, but for progress.
What Belongs in a Modern Union Contract?
The modern union contract should address evolving ideas about remuneration, workplace technology, and company culture. These can be broken down into several key concerns for the next generation of union contract provisions.
1. AI and Algorithmic Oversight
There’s little to deny that AI will cause a fundamental shift in the nature of work. Many of the AI-related concerns from workers are already emerging. People are worried about bias in hiring procedures driven by AI, the use of AI to monitor productivity, and job automation.
A modern union contract should require:
- Transparency regarding the use of AI tools
- Worker review of AI-based decisions, specifically around hiring and performance tracking
- Protection against layoffs driven by AI and other forms of automation
Our survey revealed that there’s significant concern over AI in the modern workplace. More than half of the respondents said unions need to address issues related to AI and automation.
2. Wellness Leave and Mental Health Support
The traditional counterpart to wellness and mental health in union contracts is allocation of sick days. Although sick days of some kind remain vital to working people, a growing number prefer comprehensive wellness leave. Newer generations also want mental health to achieve parity with physical health in workplace settings.
Those are some of the ideas behind some requirements for a modern union contract, such as:
- Paid mental health days
- Employer-subsidized therapy or coaching
- Proactive mental health training for management
As evidence of the shifting perspective of younger workers, many reported they prioritize work-life balance and paid leave over traditional safety standards.
3. Digital Surveillance and Worker Privacy
The influx of new technology has made workplaces more efficient, but often at the expense of worker privacy. There’s been an emergence of tools that monitor employee behavior under the guise of ensuring productivity—keystroke loggers and screen trackers, as well as wearable trackers.
The modern union contract should address these technologies head-on with provisions that ensure:
- Limits on monitoring during breaks or personal time
- Clear consent processes
- Access to surveillance data for employees
Fighting for these clauses helps address the desires for fair treatment and workplace dignity, clearly expressed by survey respondents. As technology continues to transform the workplace, these issues will continue to move to the forefront of employee concerns.
4. Learning Stipends and Skill Development Guarantees
Compared to industrial-era workplaces, there’s a greater and growing demand for workers to develop new skills to remain productive in their current roles and to advance to new ones. Workers are asking for support for long-term employability and growth. That’s particularly important as jobs are under the constant threat of automation and elimination.
The modern contract should therefore include:
- Annual learning stipend or tuition reimbursement
- Mandatory reskilling for roles impacted by technology
- Employer-supported certifications in new tools
Unions are increasingly obligated to not only protect the jobs of their members but also to help workers evolve with those jobs.
5. Flexibility and Remote Work Protections
Remote and hybrid working used to be a perk that only a select few employers would offer. In a post-pandemic world, a range of industries are coming to accept that remote and hybrid work arrangements are here to stay. The modern union contract has to account for this reality.
The new era of union contracts should address flexible work arrangements with:
- Guaranteed remote work options where feasible
- Flex-time scheduling
- Right to disconnect clauses
When surveyed on this question, Generation Z and millennial workers said they aren’t just content with an amiable workplace culture that might occasionally allow remote working arrangements. They want remote and hybrid work formally protected, not left to managerial discretion.
6. Equity and Inclusion Provisions
The modern workforce cares about equity and inclusion, however, its members also want DEI to go beyond vague statements of inclusion to enforceable practices. The modern union contract has to address this with key provisions that support members in the workplace.
The new generation of contract clauses should include:
- Third-party equity audits
- Protections for non-traditional caregivers, neurodivergent workers, and nonbinary employees
- Transparency in pay bands
The critical element underpinning this issue is the perspective of modern workers who see equity as a right—not a perk.
The Role of Unions in Delivering This Future
The union movement was critical in determining the first wave of worker protections. Now that the workforce is undergoing rapid movement again, it should be the union movement that is at the forefront of advancing modern, essential employee rights.
These issues are not mere fringe asks. They are shaping the workplaces where younger workers want to stay and grow their careers—given they have the right support.
Unions might be the only vehicle of employee advocacy that can bring about fundamental change in the modern workplace. They have the structure, trust, and bargaining power to push these emerging issues forward. But only if they evolve.
This type of advocacy is good not only for the next generation of workers but for unions as well. Those unions that negotiate for these emerging worker priorities don’t just protect members—they attract them. Unions must move from reactive defense, relying on the old paradigm of protections, to proactive design of better, more progressive working environments.
Conclusion
The modern union contract isn’t science fiction. It reflects the real concerns motivating newer generations of workers. It is therefore the logical next step in labor advocacy. The 2025 LaborStrong survey showed that younger workers still believe in the union movement. They’re open to what unions have to offer, but they also want them to step up.
The future of labor depends not on preserving old models of workplace advocacy but on building new ones. Union 2.0 isn’t just a document—it’s a promise that the future of work can be fair, flexible, and forward-thinking.