It’s hard to miss the recent increase in union organizing activity. The number of unionization drives has mushroomed after long being muted. Every non-union employer is vulnerable as more employees are looking for opportunities or relief in their current employment relationship.
A 2024 National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) report confirms the surge in union election petitions. From October 1, 2023, to September 30, 2024, the NLRB received 3,286 union election petitions. This is an increase of 27% compared to the previous year’s 2,593, and compared to 2021, the number of petitions more than doubled.
Why now? The confluence of demographic and economic trends has produced increased job openings. When added to a tightened labor market, the outcome has boosted employees’ leverage. We’re also living with the residuals of the pandemic — the taste of alternative work schemes, the lingering turmoil of pandemic-driven change and uncertainty; escalating costs; plus, the experiences of the Great Resignation. Incidentally, the resulting environment has softened the public and political perceptions of unions.
Any organization that has employees and doesn’t have a union has exposure. When employee relations have been geared to dodge unionization rather than to develop relationships, this investment addresses symptoms rather than the disease.
Managements that “cleverly” position to try to sidestep the laws and regulations are the darlings of litigators and regulators. Comparing FY 2023 to FY 2024, unfair labor practice charges filed against managements increased by 7%. The NLRB’s field offices received a total of 24,578 cases, the highest total case intake in over a decade.
Unions most often step in when they’re invited by employees or are lured by circumstances created or nurtured by managements which have built a Trojan horse against themselves. So many petitioned managements never contemplated having to face a union organizing drive. Health care professionals; college athletes; baristas; retail services employees; supervisors; teaching assistants; production, sales, administrative employees — in fact all non-union employees — are in play. So how do we deal with this? The same way effective managements deal with any other challenge to their enterprise. Be deliberate. Step back. Take a careful look. Do what’s right. Enlist some outside help if needed. Take nothing for granted. Get closer to better understand your people.
If there are flies in the management-employee ointment, they’re likely adverse workloads, stressed relationships, limited opportunities, one-way communications or deficient recognition — all deliberately or incidentally fostered by supervisors, managers and executives. These leaders are often the union organizer’s best friend. Too many respected leaders among the 3,386 who received organizing petitions during this past year were surprised as they had missed the cues. Some of those cues? Eroding employee enthusiasm for their work or for the business and, of course, increased employee turnover or absenteeism. Then there’s the evidence of groups of employees in serious, quiet and cloistered discussions that abruptly break up when managers approach. Revisit your culture and those things that animate your employees.
When playing defense, don’t spy, intimidate, threaten or make promises — all of which are counter-productive and are also unfair labor practices. Employees do have alternative employment opportunities, but they’re with you because they’ve made that choice. You don’t want a union inserted in this relationship — neither do your employees.
Unionization is rarely a workforce’s objective, but unions will provide support that unsatisfied employees value.
Focus on getting close to your people so you can understand and feel their needs and motivations, and they can understand yours. Forget about the unions; if managers do their jobs, there are no unions.
Stan Davis is the founder of New England-based Standish Executive Search. He is a former union relations and human resources executive and a graduate of the Cornell School of Industrial and Labor Relations.
