Decertification elections increase but remain no major burden to unions

A formal process to eliminate a recognized union, the decertification election, was one of the controversial innovations enacted into federal labor law by the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act. However, there have been few studies of the provision's actual impact. The frequency of decertification elections has increased greatly, but when compared with certification elections, decertification contests still require only a small portion of union resources. In recent years, unions have not been as successful in certification elections. In contrast, union losses from decertification have been accentuated. Unions lost about 100 units in 1954-55, but were successful in almost 3,000 certification elections. In 1976-77, unions were decertified in about 550 elections, compared with about 4,100 victories in certification elections. The percentage of successful decertifications, therefore, increased from 3% of successful certification elections to 14%.It appears likely that some unions are disproportionately affected by certification. The data for recent years, for example, suggest that the Teamsters' union is increasingly becoming the target for more than a random share of decertification elections.