Labor unions successfully organized more than 58,000 workers through the National Labor Relations Board’s election process in the first six months of 2023, a massive influx of workers on a scale that we’ve rarely seen before—but that we’re likely to see again.
The 662 NLRB representation elections won by unions in the year’s first half covered a total of 58,543 workers, according to Bloomberg Law’s just-released NLRB Election Statistics report. That’s the second-highest first-half organizing total in this century.
By itself, this statistic isn’t the surest measurement of labor strength; all it takes is one freakishly large election result to make a six-month period appear a lot more impressive than it really was. (This is exactly what happened in May 2013: A bargaining unit of nearly 45,000 already-unionized workers switched representation from one union to another through the NLRB election process, raising the midyear total to 67,687.)
No such anomaly is present in 2023. The sheer number of union wins so far this year, surpassing even last year’s Starbucks-studded total, makes it plain that this current wave of organized workers is no fluke.
Unions’ 662 total wins—up from 653 in H1 2022—represent the highest first-half win total for labor organizers since 2005. Meanwhile, the number of management wins at the NLRB fell from 194 in first-half 2022 to 165 in first-half 2023. These upward and downward forces have propelled unions to an 80% win rate in NLRB representation elections—the first time ever that such a milestone has been reached at the midyear point.
In particular, it’s unions’ success in the largest elections that’s driving the upsurge in workers. But, unlike in 2013, these workers are coming from multiple large elections, not just one.
In first-half 2023, unions won an almost-unbelievable 18 out of 19 resolved elections involving prospective bargaining units of 500 or more workers. (Management won one; two others are currently contested.) Those 18 wins alone resulted in 31,732 newly union-represented workers—more than half of this year’s overall total—and are a big reason why the average bargaining unit organized by unions in first-half 2023 is so much larger than in previous years (except for that outlier, 2013).
We’ll see whether the current 80% success rate can be sustained through the rest of the year. But if union organizers can continue to create bargaining units of this magnitude, that will be the measurement that matters the most to them.
Bloomberg Law subscribers can find the full NLRB Elections Statistics: Midyear 2023 report and other labor data and content on our Labor Relations & Collective Bargaining resource.
Bloomberg Law subscribers can track, search, and run reports on NLRB election results by using our Labor PLUS resource.
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