Union election petitions increased 27% from fiscal year 2023 to fiscal year 2024, and the number of petitions filed has more than doubled since FY 21, the National Labor Relations Board reported this week.
In FY 24 — which began Oct. 1, 2023, and ended Sept. 30 — the agency received 3,286 union election petitions. By comparison, the agency received 2,593 petitions in FY 23 and 1,638 petitions in FY 21.
The Associated Press reported that the news marked “the first increase in unionization petitions during a presidential term since Gerald Ford’s administration, which ended 48 years ago.” Ford was a Republican.
President Joe Biden said that “when unions do well, all workers do well and the entire economy benefits.”
“I am proud to have secured the NLRB’s first budget increase in almost a decade, and I will continue fighting for more funding so the Board can empower workers on the job,” said Biden, a Democrat.
NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo said that the increase in petitions filed “is a testament to workers knowing and exercising their rights under the National Labor Relations Act and to our board agents’ accessibility and respectful engagement with them.”
More legal cases also rose from FY 23 to FY 24. The NLRB said it received 393 unfair labor practice and representation complaints in FY 24, representing a 22% increase from the 321 cases of the previous fiscal year.
Additionally, the board said it has increased its productivity, issuing 259 decisions in FY 24, 5% more than in FY 23.
