So Big Labor will say. But most private-sector union members have never cast a ballot for their own union.
By F. Vincent Vernuccio, The Wall Street Journal, August 30, 2024
Labor Day is the traditional start of the campaign season, which means labor unions will soon hold get-out-the-vote efforts among their members. Yet a new study from the Institute for the American Worker finds that 95.1% of private-sector union members never voted to join their union. Worse, unions are getting more unrepresentative. Based on one estimate, the percentage of private-sector union members who have voted in a unionization election at their workplace has declined by 2 points since 2009.
The lack of workplace democracy isn’t an accident. As unions have acknowledged, they have sought to organize more workers through card check, a process by which they can pressure workers into supporting unionization. Card check—a public form of signature gathering—deprives employees of secret-ballot elections, which would allow them to express their preferences without fear of being ostracized.
Unions can also win secret-ballot elections with low turnout so long as they score a majority of those voting. That has meant that, as in one open case, a union might win when only 11% of eligible workers cast a ballot. That system may also encourage unions to intimidate skeptical workers to sit out the vote.
The most significant reason for low participation is that many workplaces were unionized long before current employees were hired and have remained so without pushback. If a factory organized in the 1930s, no one working at the plant today voted for the union. In many cases, employees still have to accept the bargaining representative chosen nearly a century ago as a condition of employment. Even at companies that have unionized more recently, employee turnover means that many workers will be forced into unions for which they never voted.
Unions like this dynamic, which spares them from having to improve conditions. Yet representation shouldn’t be forced on anyone—it should be freely chosen, based on what the union does or doesn’t provide.
Unsurprisingly, workers want a more democratic system. Polling shows that 76% of union households want secret-ballot elections in unionization campaigns, while 71% want unions to stand for regular re-elections. Congress can make that a reality. The Employee Rights Act would require secret-ballot elections, while the Worker Enfranchisement Act would establish a two-thirds quorum requirement of eligible employees in an election for unionization to take effect. Perhaps the most important step lawmakers could take is requiring periodic union re-election votes, granting every generation of workers a chance to cast a ballot.
There’s precedent for doing so. Wisconsin and Iowa have given public-sector workers the right to vote periodically. Florida provides for such votes if a union can’t show that 60% of its bargaining unit consists of dues-paying members. While unions have prevailed in some of those elections, others haven’t, owing to a lack of worker support. That process allows members to replace old unions with ones that deliver better value. Miami teachers are getting that choice right now, between United Teachers of Dade and the Miami-Dade Education Coalition—or nothing.
Congress ought to give private-sector workers the same freedom to choose. That could include requiring unions to stand for re-election every few years, or once a bargaining unit reaches a certain turnover rate. Either option would put workers in the driver’s seat.
There’s no chance that Kamala Harris and congressional Democrats will back these reforms. Donald Trump and Republicans should seize the initiative. The message to private-sector union members would be simple: We aren’t merely asking for your vote. With your support, we’ll strengthen your right to vote in the workplace. The promise could be more motivating and consequential than any union get-out-the-vote effort.
Mr. Vernuccio is president of the Institute for the American Worker.