Workers are winning a greater percentage of National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)-recognized union elections than at any point in the past 15 years. However, The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 includes a blueprint for eroding the NLRB’s ability to protect organizing workers, according to a new analysis by the Center for American Progress (CAP).
The CAP analysis of NLRB elections data found that in 2023, the union win rate in NLRB elections exceeded 70 percent for the first time in 15 years. Additionally, since 2021, the NLRB has secured 54 percent more reinstatement offers for illegally fired workers compared to all four years of the previous administration. This success is attributed to new rules instituted by the NLRB that facilitate workers' rights to join unions.
The union win rate has consistently been higher under the Biden administration than under its predecessor. The Project 2025 policy playbook outlines strategies for future administrations to weaken the NLRB’s enforcement capacity and turn it against unions by firing key agency leaders, simplifying union decertification processes, and closing established methods of forming unions.
“The NLRB has been a key part of the Biden administration’s strategy for empowering workers to ensure they have a fair shot at forming a union,” said Aurelia Glass, policy analyst for the Inclusive Economy team at CAP and author of this analysis. “Crucial appointees are holding lawbreaking corporations accountable and helping reverse a decades-long trend that allowed bad actors to bust workers’ unions before they could form. Project 2025 offers a playbook for how an administration could jeopardize the NLRB’s ability to protect organizing workers and threatens rolling back unions’ success over the past four years.”
For more information on this topic or to speak with an expert, please contact Sarah Nadeau at [email protected].
