July 17 (Reuters) - Unions are filing petitions to hold

elections and winning them at rates not seen in decades,

according to data released by the National Labor Relations Board

on Wednesday, likely a reflection of the agency's adoption of

policies favored by unions during the Biden administration.

The board in a release said it has already received more

than 2,600 union election petitions during the fiscal year that

ends Sept. 30, surpassing the total for the full previous fiscal

year. NLRB regional offices have seen a 32% increase in the

number of petitions filed compared with this time last year, the

agency 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.

And unions are winning more elections - 79% this year in

cases where they petitioned for an election, up from 76% last

year, according to the NLRB. Until a few years ago, unions had

routinely won about two-thirds, and as few as 60%, of elections

held each year.

The board, which normally releases annual data later in the

year, did not provide an explanation for the increases.

Despite the recent surge in union elections, the percentage

of U.S. workers represented by unions has remained roughly

steady 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.

Many experts have said the nationwide surge in union

organizing likely stems from the COVID-19 pandemic making people

more concerned about their working conditions, and represents a

backlash against efforts to rein in unions during the

administration of Republican former President Donald Trump.

During the Biden administration, the board has resurrected

Obama-era policies designed to speed up the election process,

which is generally seen as favoring unions, while also creating

a new path for unions to organize workers and expanding the type

of worker conduct protected by federal labor law.

The board's general counsel and five members are appointed

by the president, but the agency operates independently from the

executive branch. The board is generally comprised of three

members from the president's party and two from the opposing

party, and their five-year terms are staggered.

Catherine Fisk, a professor at the University of California,

Berkeley School of Law, said public support for unions is at its

highest levels since the 1960s. Coupled with recent actions by

the NLRB that boost union organizing, those positive attitudes

about unions embolden workers to form them, whether on their own

as thousands of Starbucks ( SBUX ) workers have since 2021 or by teaming

up with established unions like Volkswagen employees in

Tennessee who recently voted to join the United Auto Workers,

she said.

"It's a phenomenon that feeds on itself," Fisk said.

Glenn Spencer, senior vice president of employment policy at

the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the country's largest business

lobby, said the new numbers are not surprising given the NLRB's

various efforts in recent years to promote unionizing rather

than act as a neutral arbiter of labor disputes.

"In fact, the entire (Biden) administration has pushed

unionization at all costs regardless of its negative impact on

our economy and workers' rights," Spencer said in an email.

One of the board's most recent changes that has drawn the

most ire from business groups was a 2023 ruling involving

building materials company Cemex that allows the NLRB to order

companies that commit labor law violations during organizing

campaigns to bargain with unions, even when workers vote against

unionizing.

The Cemex ruling also requires employers presented with

proof of majority support for a union, such as signed

authorization cards, to either recognize the union or seek an

election. The board on Wednesday said that as a result of that

change, it has seen a 20-fold increase this year in petitions

filed by employers rather than unions.

Read more:

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