News & Events
Unions' Election Win Rate Continues to Rise
06/18/2010
Contrary to allegations of union leaders that card check legislation is required due to an unfair election process, in 2009, unions won 68.5% of representation elections conducted by the NLRB, which is up from the 66.9% win rate of a year ago. Notably, unions have won more than half of all representation elections in each of the past 13 years.
Fortunately, for employers wishing to remain non-union, there is some good news since the number of representation elections held in 2009 dropped. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters led all unions by participating in 366 elections in 2009.
By bargaining unit size, unions had the greatest organizing successes among very small and very large bargaining units. Unions won 70 percent of the 862 elections in units of fewer than 50 employees, and 71.4 percent of 14 elections in units of 500 workers or more.
Unions won 50 percent or more of the elections held in all industries in 2009, except manufacturing (48.5 percent), and mining (33.3 percent). The industry with the highest number of wins was transportation, communications, and utilities (73.7 percent), followed by construction (73 percent), finance, insurance, and real estate (72.2 percent), health care (72 percent), and services (70.5 percent). Other sectors where unions won at least 50 percent of the elections in which they participated included communications (58.8 percent), wholesale (54.2 percent), and retail (51.1 percent).
In light of the significant support unions have given the current federal administration, the NLRB’s new pro-union appointees, and the ongoing threat of card check legislation, union elections and win rates will likely rise in the coming years. Accordingly, employers need to be continually vigilant with respect to their workforce by emphasizing open communication with employees and imparting to employees the importance to the company of maintaining a non-union workplace if they wish to remain a non-union employer.
