How many of the people in labor unions ever actually voted to join a labor union?
You’d be surprised.
This issue was raised recently by a fellow named Terry Bowman.
Bowman has worked as an hourly employee for Ford Motor Company in Dearborn, Michigan for
20 years.
Working for Ford is a tradition in his family.
Bowman’s father also worked for Ford.
So did a brother, and several of his aunts and uncles.
At Ford, the Bowmans shared something beyond family ties.
They were all represented by the United Auto Workers.
One day last summer, Bowman congratulated an employee at the plant who was retiring
after 50 years on the job.
Something amazing occurred to him, that the 50-year employee had been a member of the
UAW for half a century, yet never—not once—voted to join the UAW or to have the UAW represent
employees at the plant.
That decision had been made by other workers a generation before he started working at
Ford.
Decades later, their choice still bound him and all Ford’s current employees.
The UAW organized Ford Motor Company in 1941.
The automakers’ current employees were all hired well after 1941.
They never voted for UAW representation themselves.
But what’s called the “presumption of majority support” means that the UAW never
had to win their support in a new election.
Most U.S. union members inherited representation this way.
For over two generations the Bowmans and all of their co-workers received union “representation”
they never asked for.
They are not alone. The vast majority of unionized workers, some 94%, never voted for their union.
Unions legally represent workers in workplace negotiations.
In theory, this representation is legitimized through a democratic process in which workers
vote in favor of union representation.
In practice, only six percent of those covered by unions under the National Labor Relations
Act (NLRA) have ever voted for union representation.
Two-thirds of workers think union representatives are representing themselves rather than the
workers, and 70 percent of union members disapprove of their union.
How did we get to this situation?
Four aspects of the union election procedures cause this problem:
One: Unions can bypass workplace elections entirely by pressuring employers to forgo
a secret ballot.
The National Labor Relations Act allows employers to request a secret ballot election before
it requires them to recognize and bargain with a union, but Unions will wage public
relations campaigns against corporations until the company agrees to forgo a secret ballot
vote.
Two: When employees do vote, unions need not obtain the support from a majority of employees
in the workplace.
It is sufficient to get a majority of workers voting in the election.
For example, in August of 2015, workers at the LINQ Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas voted
on whether to join the UAW.
The UAW got 74 votes, 42 workers voted against it, and 131 did not vote.
The UAW won the election despite the fact that fewer than one-third of all employees
voted for representation by the UAW.
Three: Once formed, unions do not stand for re-election.
They remain certified indefinitely unless removed in a decertification election.
This stands in stark contrast to political representation.
Political representatives in America serve for a fixed term of office.
Their election gives them a mandate to represent their constituents, but that mandate lasts
only a fixed period of time.
Union representation does not operate on this principle.
Four: The National Labor Relations Board makes it difficult to call for decertification elections.
Unions likewise work to prevent decertification.
Most unions expel members who support decertification, and the NLRB regulations create a
system in which workers typically have just one month every three years to petition for a new election.
This system makes unions less accountable to their members.
Workers who want a different union representative—or no union—face considerable difficulty in
implementing these preferences.
Unions know this, so they feel less pressure to represent their members well.
Some unscrupulous unions take advantage of this situation to pursue their institutional
interests at the expense of their members.
Currently, union representation in the United States is uncomfortably close to that envisioned
by dictators who come to power initially by election: “One man, one vote, once.”
Or, as Turkish strongman Recep Tayyip Erdoğan reputedly said, democracy is like a bus; “Once
you reach your destination, you get off.”
We don’t elect presidents for life.
We shouldn’t elect unions for life, or for the lives of people who aren’t even born.
It’s time for America’s workers to benefit from the same democratic process that made
our nation great.