unionize
Americanverb (used with object)
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to organize into a labor union; bring into or incorporate in a labor union.
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to subject to the rules of a labor union.
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Obsolete. to form into a union.
verb (used without object)
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to join in a labor union.
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Obsolete. to form a union.
verb
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to organize (workers) into a trade union
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to join or cause to join a trade union
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(tr) to subject to the rules or codes of a trade union
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to join or become joined in marriage or civil partnership
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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unionizesimple
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unionizessimple
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have unionizedperfect
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has unionizedperfect
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am unionizingprogressive
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are unionizingprogressive
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is unionizingprogressive
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have been unionizingperfect progressive
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has been unionizingperfect progressive
Past
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unionizedsimple
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had unionizedperfect
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was unionizingprogressive
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were unionizingprogressive
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had been unionizingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of unionize
Explanation
To unionize is to form a group of workers that has more power to negotiate with an employer. Fast food employees might unionize so they can bargain for higher wages and safer working conditions. When workers unionize, they vote to join a union, or a collective bargaining group. Sometimes belonging to a union is easy: most public school teachers, police officers, and other municipal employees automatically join existing unions when they're hired. In non-union jobs, however, like waiting tables or delivering food, employees who want to unionize have to convince a majority of their coworkers to vote in favor of the move.
Vocabulary lists containing unionize
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
I worked at the first Trader Joe’s store to unionize, and when I attended a bargaining session in 2023, I was shocked by what I saw and heard.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 21, 2026
With claims to intellectual property becoming more complex and difficult to prove in the digital age, sex workers seeking to unionize say the stakes of their efforts are higher than ever.
From Salon ● Mar. 23, 2026
What’s more, only employees can unionize and collectively bargain under the National Labor Relations Act.
From MarketWatch ● Jan. 30, 2026
Yet ratifying the agreement has proven difficult because roughly half of the guides don’t want to unionize.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 12, 2025
I could act as a public person—able to defend my interests, to unionize, to petition, to speak up—to challenge and demand.
From "Hunger of Memory" by Richard Rodriguez
GM is likely to be the next company to settle because it has agreed to pull new electric vehicle battery factories into the UAW’s national contract, which essentially unionizes them.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 26, 2023
A simple majority of valid ballots submitted by Amazon workers will determine if the upstate-New York facility unionizes.
From Reuters ● Oct. 18, 2022
Keisha Renaud, 50, an associate from East Orange, New Jersey, said she would leave the facility if it unionizes.
From Reuters ● Mar. 25, 2022
Apple Store employees hope that once the first store successfully unionizes, others will fall like dominoes.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 18, 2022
And if Northwestern unionizes, soon Florida will unionize.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 12, 2014
The downbeat earnings come as Hyundai’s unionized auto workers in South Korea are staging partial walkouts for a second straight week to demand higher wages, doubling strike hours to four per shift this week.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
If Musk fails, he only earns his $54,080 salary, or about half of what unionized hotel housekeepers make in Manhattan.
From Barron's ● Jun. 17, 2026
Several previous “CoComelon” productions have successfully been unionized and covered by IATSE’s contract, including the Netflix series.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 7, 2026
And in the approximately 5% of U.S. stores that are unionized, the program is subject to collective bargaining, or negotiation with the union.
From MarketWatch ● May 6, 2026
We walked down the valley through the center of town and around a mountainside, past the small, tidy brick houses put up after the mines were unionized.
From "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls
It realized a long-sought goal in unionizing a foreign automaker: a Volkswagen factory in Tennessee.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 13, 2026
His goal is to talk up the VW agreement to cajole workers at Mercedes and other foreign plants into unionizing.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 17, 2026
The effort is led by Starbucks Workers United, which describes itself as “a worker-led unionizing effort run by people who are also working regularly scheduled shifts.”
From Barron's ● Nov. 13, 2025
In person, however, Whole Foods is discouraging its employees from unionizing.
From Salon ● Nov. 26, 2024
Track officials viewed any effort to create funds for injured riders as unionizing, and they were ready to ban any jockey who took steps in that direction.
From "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
