Unions filed twice as many petitions seeking to hold elections over the last year than they did in 2021, the National Labor Relations Board said on Tuesday, due in part to a nationwide surge in organizing in industries that have long been union-free.
The NLRB said it had received 3,286 election petitions in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, a 27% increase from last year and more than double the 1,638 petitions filed in fiscal year 2021, when Democratic President Joe Biden took office.
The board also said it had received about 21,300 complaints alleging illegal labor practices, a 7% increase from 2023 and the highest total since 2016.
Biden, who had previously vowed to be the most pro-union president in U.S. history, said in a statement that his administration was the first in five decades to oversee an increase in union election petitions.
"When unions do well, all workers do well and the entire economy benefits," Biden said.
In most cases, unions are required to seek and then win elections overseen by the NLRB in order to represent groups of workers known as bargaining units. A number of large companies including Starbucks, Amazon.com, Wells Fargo and Apple are facing union campaigns for the first time.
Despite the recent increase in union elections, the share of U.S. workers represented by unions has remained at the lowest levels in the country's modern history. Only about 11% of American workers overall and 6% of private-sector employees have union jobs, compared with more than 30% of all workers in the 1940s and 1950s.
NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo, a Biden appointee, said during a panel discussion hosted by the National Press Club on Tuesday that the uptick in union elections was likely due to workers' increased awareness of their rights to organize and advocate for unionization.
"We are seeing underserved, vulnerable populations actually feeling empowered to elevate their voices and be heard (and) to demand a seat at the bargaining table, whether that’s through established labor organizations or homegrown ones," she said.
At the same time, highly educated workers in traditionally non-unionized fields have taken a greater interest in organizing as their working conditions have deteriorated, Brian Petruska, general counsel of the Laborers International Union of North America Mid-Atlantic Region said during the event with Abruzzo.
He cited the example of some doctors forming unions as private equity firms increasingly buy up medical practices.
"When the [National Labor Relations] Act was passed, people probably would’ve never thought that workers like this would need a union," Petruska said.
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US union organizing, and unions' election win rate, is surging, NLRB says
