Unions Should Periodically Stand for Re-Election

The National Right to Work Foundation just filed a rulemaking petition with the NLRB, and the core idea is simple: make unions periodically prove they still have majority support. I’ve supported this notion for over a decade.

Per the petition, over 90% of private-sector workers under union representation never actually voted for that union. They happen to work for a company whose employees voted – perhaps 50 years ago – for a union. One card check or election decades ago locked in bargaining power that’s never been retested.

Does the opposite apply? If a union loses an election is it forever banned from trying to organize that employer again? No. The union is only banned for 1 year, then it can try to organize again.

The petition asks the Board to scrap a stack of non-statutory “bars” — contract bar, recognition bar, successor bar, settlement bar — plus the blocking-charge policy and the merger doctrine. None of them appear in the text of the National Labor Relations Act.

After Loper Bright, agencies don’t get to invent authority the statute doesn’t grant. Section 9(c) says the Board “shall” hold an election when a representation question exists.

Politicians stand for re-election. Employers are at risk of union elections every year. Why shouldn’t union leadership prove their worth, be accountable to members, and be voted in or out?