Most Decertified Union Award

Union Free America

320 Maple Avenue East, #4

Vienna, VA 22180-4716

News Release

September 3, 2009

Teamsters Union Wins 2009 Most Decertified Union Award

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters is the winner of Union Free America’s 4th Annual “Most Decertified Union Award.” This honor is awarded to the labor union that lost the most decertification elections during the preceding 12 months.

The judging was based on an analysis of the reports of election results on the National Labor Relations Board’s web site for the period August 2008 through July 2009. During that time the NLRB conducted 282 decertification elections. Employees seeking to rid themselves of a union won 160 or 56 percent of them.

The Teamsters union won the “Most Decertified Union Award” by being decertified 54 times during that period. The Teamsters were involved in a total of 80 decertification elections of which they lost 67 percent.

The United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union (USWA) came in a distant second by being decertified in 11 out of 17 elections, or 65 percent.

The Laborers International Union of North America (LIUNA) won honorable mention by being decertified 6 times. This may seem paltry compared to the Teamsters, but LIUNA deserves recognition for being decertified in 6 out of 7 elections.

The Teamsters outstanding performance helped the Change to Win federation edge out the AFL-CIO affiliates in the competition, despite the fact that the AFL-CIO is a considerably larger federation. Change to Win unions participated in a total of 142 decertification elections and lost 77 of them compared to just 121 elections with 70 losses for the AFL-CIO.

A special Honorable Mention award was given to the United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW) for participating in more decertification elections than certification elections. During the twelve months covered by the competition the UAW participated in 8 certification elections, wining 5 of them and in 13 decertification elections losing 7 of them.

When you consider that the NLRB conducted 1,339 certification elections during this 12 month period compared to the 282 decertification elections, being involved in more elections where workers want to get rid of you than in elections where they want you, is quite an accomplishment.

Colorful certificates commemorating these achievements have been sent to the Teamsters, Steel Workers, Laborers and Auto Workers unions.

It seems as if unions are less and less willing to participate in elections where they don't have as good a chance to win. Between August 2000 and July 2001, the earliest comparable period for which data is available online, the NLRB conducted 2,726 certification elections and unions won 1,445 or 53 percent of them. Between August 2008 and July 2009 the NLRB conducted only 1,339 certification elections and unions won 995 or 68 percent.

To petition the NLRB for an election only takes signatures of 30 percent of the workers in a unit. The decline in the number of certification elections is generally attributable to the unions inability to convince workers to vote for union representation in a secret ballot election.

Labor union officials are pressing for legislation to deny employees the right to a secret ballot vote on union representation. This bill is ironically named the "Employee Free Choice Act." The undemocratic scheme the unions would use to replace elections is called a "card check" in which a union is certified by a bare majority of workers signing authorization cards.

There is strong evidence that signed cards are not a valid indication of employee support for unions. The AFL-CIO's own research finds that 28 percent of employees who sign cards vote against a union when given a secret ballot. Other academic research has found that unions must get cards signed by 65 percent of workers in order to have a 50-50 chance to win a secret ballot election.

David Denholm, the founder of Union Free America, observes that, "The so-called 'free choice act' is a completely one sided proposal. It has no provision for allowing employees to rid themselves of unwanted unions through a card-check."

Union Free America was founded in 2002 to provide advice and encouragement to workers fighting to stay, or become, Union Free. The “Most Decertified Union Award” was established in 2006 in response to the growing number of requests from workers for information about how they could rid themselves of unwanted union representation.