Posts tagged NLRB
Alabama Sherwin-Williams Production Site Workers Win Vote to Eject Boilermakers Union Bosses
May 27, 2026 // Employees at a Sherwin-Williams Packaging Coatings Group production facility have freed themselves from the unwanted “representation” of International Brotherhood of Boilermakers union officials. The workers’ effort was spearheaded by Jacob Miller, who filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), seeking a “decertification” election to end the Boilermakers’ exclusive bargaining powers over the workers. Miller’s petition was filed with free legal aid from the National Right to Work Foundation.
KU pharmacy techs narrowly lose union election, claim some votes weren’t counted
May 26, 2026 // “Disliking the results of an election objectively administered by an impartial state agency should not lead to baseless claims by the IAM Union intended to misinform employees and the public,” the health system’s written statement said in part. The larger bargaining unit, which includes the health system’s 39th Street main campus, voted 19-20 against unionizing. The unit had 105 eligible voters. Two ballots were voided. The second bargaining unit, including a specialty pharmacy in the Southlake Business Park in Lenexa, voted 9-10 against unionizing. That unit had 43 eligible voters.
Commentary: Short-Term Gains, Long-Term Harm: The Real Cost of Union Monopoly Power
May 22, 2026 // The Mercatus paper's survey findings cut against the union narrative in ways that should matter to anyone who follows labor policy. When asked directly, workers say they prefer unions that cooperate with management over unions that are more powerful but adversarial. They prefer having multiple options for representation rather than one organization with legal monopoly control over their workplace. And union progressive political activity and strikes, the two things union leadership most reliably prioritizes, are the only factors that consistently make workers less favorable toward organized labor.
St. Louis marijuana workers win union vote after two-year ballot fight
May 21, 2026 // Agricultural workers are excluded from the National Labor Relations Act, the federal law that protects most private-sector employees' right to unionize without fear of retaliation. "We agree with the regional [NLRB] director, for the reasons provided in her decision, that none of the workers employed in the classifications at issue here are agricultural laborers under the secondary definition of agriculture," the national board members wrote.
Big Labor’s Rise to Power, or Big Labor Never Lets a Tragedy Go to Waste
May 21, 2026 // It contrasts Samuel Gompers’ early emphasis on voluntarism (“No lasting gain has ever come from compulsion”) with later leaders, such as Owen Bieber, who embraced “the persuasion of power.” Compulsory unionism—forced membership or dues as a condition of keeping or having a job—began in the private sector in 1935, and with the federal government’s help, it spread like a “cancer” to government workers, and it has eroded worker rights, public services, and democratic processes while enriching labor union treasuries and many union officers.
NLRB General Counsel Requests Reversal of Ban on Employer “Captive Audience” Meetings During Union Organizing Drives
May 20, 2026 // The General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board (the “Board” or “NLRB”) is signaling a significant shift in federal labor policy by taking the position that two Biden-Era Board decisions—both of which imposed new restrictions on employers fighting union drives—were wrongfully decided. In challenging the Board’s 2024 NLRB decisions in Amazon.com Services LLC and Siren Retail Corp., General Counsel Crystal Carey argues that the Board improperly departed from longstanding precedent. Amazon.com Services LLC, 373 NLRB No. 136 (Nov. 13, 2024) A “captive audience” meeting is a mandatory meeting held during working time in which an employer addresses employees during a union organizing campaign and expresses its views opposing unionization. For more than 75 years, the Board considered such meetings lawful under settled precedent. Mandatory captive audience meetings were a common and effective tool used by employers to respond to union organizing efforts. In November 2024, however, the Board’s Democrat majority reversed that longstanding precedent in Amazon.com Services, LLC and held that requiring employees to attend anti-union meetings could unlawfully interfere with employees’ Section 7 rights under the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”) (see client alert here).
Seattle Art Museum Workers Move to Unionize
May 19, 2026 // Over 100 staff members across departments at the Seattle Art Museum (SAM) have announced their intention to unionize in a recent letter to the Director and CEO Scott Stulen and the museum board, urging leadership to voluntarily recognize the union by Wednesday, May 27. Going by Seattle Art Museum Workers United (SAMWU), the employees have affiliated with Washington Federation of State Employees/AFSCME Council 28, which also represents workers at the Tacoma Art Museum, as first reported by the Seattle Times. Dated May 13, the SAMWU letter to the museum was signed by 59 current employees working in visitor experience and memberships, collections care and art handling, curatorial and exhibition projects, events management, institutional giving, and education, among other departments.
Seattle Art Museum Workers Are Unionizing
May 15, 2026 // Unbothered by grey skies, dribbling rain, and that stale-ass statement, SAMWU and its supporters held a rally and press conference outside the museum at 1st Ave and University. Before the press conference started, members chomped on pizza and cupcakes, handing out union t-shirts and buttons with the SAMWU logo—Jonathan Borofsky’s “Hammering Man” sculpture, mid-hammer, natch—and socialized. Representatives from SAM Visitor Service Officers (VSO) union, Tacoma Art Museum Workers United, and the Washington State Labor Council AFL-CIO all commingled.
Employees of DC Paint-Your-Own Pottery Studio Vote to Unionize
May 14, 2026 // The employees of the Cleveland Park paint-your-own pottery studio All Fired Up have voted to unionize. The staffers began a campaign to formally unionize in early April, and they voted to do so during a National Labor Relations Board election Monday. The decision was unanimous, staffer Toni Lewis tells Washingtonian. “Unionization gives us a formal role in shaping policy and process,” the employees’ organizing committee’s members—who said staffers were inspired by similar efforts at Crumbs and Whiskers cat cafe in Georgetown and Aslin Beer Company—wrote in a statement. “As a small business without HR, we need a way to advocate for our needs.”
Despite Arizona Dispensary Employees’ Landslide Vote to Remove UFCW, Union Bosses Seek to Overturn Election Result
May 14, 2026 // Employees of Curaleaf Camelback Dispensary overwhelmingly voted United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 99 union bosses out of power at their workplace. Dispensary employee Jennifer Mooney, who filed a petition for her coworkers with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) last month, led the workers’ effort. The petition sought a “decertification” election to terminate the status of UFCW Local 99 as the workers’ exclusive “representative.”