ANALYSIS: Union Decertifications Rose Sharply in First-Half 2021

The National Labor Relations Board’s midyear election results are in, and they show a sharp increase in the number of decertifications—that is, the number of worker groups voting themselves out of union representation—in the first half of 2021.

Unionized workers held 69 total decertification elections in first-half 2021—a 30% increase over the 53 decert elections that the NLRB oversaw in first-half 2020. (In contrast, 2021 saw only a 4% increase in the much-larger number of union representation elections, from 446 to 463.)

Unions lost 46 of those 69 elections, compared with only 28 losses in first-half 2020—a 64% increase. All ...