NLRB REPORTS BIG SURGE IN UNION ELECTION FILINGS
Since 2021, the year President Biden took office, the number of union election petitions filed with the National Labor Relations Board has skyrocketed, the board recently reported. In the last year alone, the requests have jumped 29 percent from nearly 2,600 to nearly 3,600. Under the law, if 30 percent of the workers in a workplace sign union authorization cards, the NLRB is charged with reviewing the petitions and conducting an election. And if a majority of the workers select a union, the employer must bargain in good faith with that union.
The big jump in union election filings reflects the labor-friendly policies of the Biden administration and the presidential appointments to the NLRB that has changed the board’s policies.
Over the years, however, Republican appointees to the board have disproportionately been corporate-friendly lawyers, or even those advising companies on how to avoid unionization. This has severely weakened the ability of unions to get the board to enforce the law. Many unions have avoided the NLRB altogether.
The change in NLRB policies has created one big problem – a shortage of personnel to handle the huge caseload of approving petitions and supervising elections. The board pointed to the fact that when it faced a similar situation back in 2011 during the Obama administration, it had 62 percent more field staff. Cuts during the Trump years have since made the situation difficult.
