Union Election Win Rates Updated: In March, unions won nearly 80% of all NLRB certification elections
With the addition of February and March data, trends show that unions continue to win a large majority of secret-ballot elections.
Overall, unions won an average 70.7 percent of representation (RC) elections in the first six months of the NLRB’s fiscal year1, according to the NLRB data.
While the beginning of the fiscal year showed unions winning around 70 percent of the certification elections2 conducted, by January, the percentage of union wins fell to 54 percent in January before soaring to 88% in February and 79% in March.
The additions of February and March helped pull the average for FY 2023 up higher.
October: 72% win rate
November: 68% win rate
December: 63% win rate
January: 54% win rate
February: 88% win rate
March: 79% win rate
With the additions of February and March, the union win rate average returns to consistency with prior years wherein unions have been winning around 70 percent of all NLRB representation (RC) elections conducted by secret ballot.
For example, in FY 2022, unions won an average of 72 percent of certification (RC) elections.
Although, in FY 2020 and FY 2021—which was during the height of the pandemic lockdowns in many states—union win rates were 65 percent at 61 percent, respectively, these years are below pre-pandemic union rates.
In FY 2019, the union win rates for certification (RC) elections were 70 percent, and 69 percent in FY 2018. In FY 2017, unions won 71 percent of the RC elections while, in FY 2016, unions won 72 percent of the RC elections.
The National Labor Relations Board’s Fiscal Year (FY) begins on October 1st each year and ends on September 30th.
The union representation (RC) election data analyzed does not include union decertification (RD) election data.