Petitions for union elections jumped 27% in the last year, according to figures from the National Labor Relations Board that prove that workplace activism is flourishing under the Biden-Harris administration.
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| Cece Marquez, right, a 20-year employee of San Diego Gas & Electric’s call center, with her daughter during a successful organizing effort that added about 200 members to San Diego Local 465. Marquez was the leader of the effort.
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| Cece Marquez, second from right, was the leader of an organizing effort that led to her and her colleagues at San Diego Gas & Electric becoming Local 465 members.
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| San Diego Gas & Electric call center employees during their successful organizing effort with San Diego Local 465. The number of union election petitions filed with the National Labor Relations Board has doubled since 2021.
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That’s another reason for working families to support Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential election, Professional & Industrial Organizing Director Joe DMichele said.
“Now that the NLRB is working to enforce the rules and hold employers accountable, it makes organizing a lot easier,” he said.
The IBEW formally endorsed Harris when she entered the race in July, noting the key role she’s played in President Joe Biden’s pro-union and pro-worker administration.
“There is more interest because we are in a time where it is favorable to join a union,” DiMichele said. “Thankfully, the Biden-Harris administration and its changing of the [NLRB] general counsel from a union buster to someone making sure workers’ rights are protected has had a big impact.
“When you’re organizing a group, it means showing what it means to be in a union and how those protections work for them,” DiMichele added. “Now that the NLRB is working to enforce those things, it makes it a lot easier.”
The federal government’s fiscal year runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30. The board reported that 3,286 election petitions were filed during that period, compared to 2,593 petitions during the 2023 fiscal year and double the 1,638 received in 2021, the final fiscal year of the Trump administration.
There also was a 7% increase in the number of unfair labor practice charge filings, to 21,292. The total of 24,578 cases involving election petitions and unfair labor charges is the NLRB’s highest case intake in more than a decade.
DiMichele said the rise in election petitions is persuading more employers to voluntarily recognize unions.
“The surge in cases we’ve received in the last few years is a testament to workers knowing and exercising their rights under the National Labor Relations Act,” NLRB general counsel Jennifer Abruzzo said. “Our committed and talented NLRB staff continue to process cases with professionalism and care, despite working with limited resources.”
Abruzzo, former counsel to the Communications Workers of America, was selected by Biden in February 2021 after he fired previous general counsel Peter Robb, an anti-labor lawyer and a holdover from President Donald Trump’s administration.
A Trump victory in the 2024 election would lead to an almost immediate attack on the NLRB and workers’ rights in general, said DiMichele, a longtime field organizer before moving into this current position in 2023.
That would curb organizing rights in all unions, including the IBEW, and undercut bargaining power for current union members and their families.
“I remember days when I was still an organizer and we would call the board during the Trump administration to have a discussion with an agent and they would not talk to us,” DiMichele said. “They would not call us back. Everything would shut down.”
A Harris victory also would add momentum to increase staff at the NLRB, especially if Democrats control Congress. The board issued 259 decisions on unfair labor practice and representation cases, a 5% increase over the previous fiscal year.
But it still faces a backlog in cases. It ended the fiscal year with 288 pending, a 46% increase from 197 pending during the previous year.
GOP victories likely would lead to a decimation of the board’s resources to protect private-sector workers’ right to join a union and fight back against unfair and unlawful labor practices.
“The NLRB’s dedicated employees have worked hard this year to process cases effectively,’ board Chairman Lauren McFerran said. “Additional resources are necessary to enable the board to expand staffing capacity and ensure that workers, employers and unions that rely on our agency benefit from timely resolution of their labor disputes.”
DiMichele agreed that expanding staff at the NLRB is crucial. It’s also one more tool workers have when they seek union recognition.
“The people we organize often live from paycheck to paycheck,” he said. “It can be pretty scary for them. As an organizer, you have their livelihood in your hands. Having the best system in place to protect them makes them more comfortable to organize.”