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Union election petitions fell 15% in 2025 and have not recovered in 2026

Published 2026-11-07 · By Pushbuild · Data: NLRB Cases API – Unfair Labor Charges & Union Elections

15%Union election petitions fell · as of 2026-11-07

Workers and unions filed 1,583 petitions for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board from January to September 2025, down from 1,857 in the same months of 2024. The same months of 2026 brought 1,587, level with 2025 and still below 2022, 2023 and 2024.

06191,2381,857202220232024202520261,587

“Elections to certify or decertify a union as the bargaining representative of a unit of employees are decided by a majority of votes cast.”

— NLRB, Conduct Elections
January to SeptemberUnion election petitions (RC)Decertification petitions (RD)RC closed: union certifiedRC closed: union lostUnion win rate, closed cases
20221,68524293032873.9%
20231,64223791926977.4%
20241,857248101134674.5%
20251,58322480629273.4%
20261,58722471528371.6%

Unions won 73.4% of the 2025 petitions that ended in a certified result, against 77.4% for 2023 petitions. Decertification petitions, filed to remove a union, slipped from 248 to 224.

Caveats

Counts are NLRB case filings by filing date, as of November 7, 2026. January to September is compared because the data has no filings at all for October 2025, a gap being checked with the source. Win rates count only petitions closed with a certification of representative (union won) or a certification of results (union lost); withdrawn and dismissed petitions are excluded, and many 2026 petitions are still open, so the 2026 rate will move.

Sources

Data as of 2026-11-07. Every figure in this post is in the table above and the CSV below.

Download the data behind this post: b7-nlrb-petitions-jan-sep.csv

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Every number in this post comes from the NLRB Cases API – Unfair Labor Charges & Union Elections. $0.0016 per row returned; every key gets $1 of free usage each month.

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  -d '{"maxItems": 20}'
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