According to Bloomberg BNA’s NLRB Elections Statistics, Year-End 2012 Report, the National Labor Relations Board reported 228 decertification elections in 2012 — the lowest total in many years. (A decertification election is an NLRB-conducted election in which employees who are represented by a union vote on whether they want to continue to be represented.) Of those 228 elections, unions lost 141 — a 61.8 % loss rate. This is the highest decertification election loss rate in five years.
The Teamsters were the biggest decertification election losers. Teamsters units filed 51 decertification petitions and the Teamsters lost in 38 of the elections held pursuant to those petitions – 75% of the time. This accounted for more than one-fifth of all decertification elections in 2012.