Unions Need Democracy: 95 Percent of Union Workers Never Voted for Their Union

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by F. Vincent Vernuccio and Akash Chougule

Private-sector unions are becoming less democratic and representative—even as they claim to represent all workers at unionized worksites. Ninety-five percent of private sector union workers under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) are represented by a union they have never voted for.

Analyzing four decades of data on union organizing elections shows that workplace democracy has worsened since the last such analysis, in 2016. In the past eight years, the percentage of private-sector union members who voted for their union has declined by more than a full percentage point—from 6% to 4.9%.

There are three main factors driving this undemocratic trend:

• First, unions are shifting from secret-ballot elections to “card-check” campaigns in which no election is held.
• Second, unions can win elections with support from a miniscule percentage of eligible workers, including if most workers don’t vote.
• Third, and most importantly, unions are not required to periodically stand for re-election, even if they lack support from a majority of current workers—and even if no current workers voted for the union in the first place.

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