What Unions Do and How Collective Bargaining Works

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In New Haven, Connecticut, a three-year teachers’ contract landed this year with a 13.57% salary increase, better health benefits, extra prep days, and a joint committee to review special-education caseloads. It also did something quieter that educators had wanted for more than a decade: it required the district to publish a public line-item budget.

Jenny Graves, vice president of the New Haven Federation of Teachers, helped negotiate that deal. Member backing came in at more than 90%.

That is what a union does, in one sentence: it lets workers negotiate together over pay, benefits, and the rules of the job, and turns the result into a binding contract.

Getting there follows a fairly defined sequence. Workers talk, sign cards, file a petition, win an election, bargain a contract, then enforce it. Each step has its own rules, deadlines, and referees.

What a Union Actually Is

In U.S. law, a union is an organization that represents employees in bargaining with their employer over wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment. The National Labor Relations Act, first enacted in 1935, is the main federal statute governing labor relations for most private-sector employees.

The referee is the National Labor Relations Board, which is an independent federal agency, not part of any other government agency such as the Department of Labor. It runs the elections and investigates unfair labor practice charges. It does not run the bargaining itself.

Which law applies depends on who you are. Railway and airline workers fall under the Railway Labor Act, overseen by the National Mediation Board. Federal employees answer to the Federal Labor Relations Authority. State and local workers, like those New Haven teachers, are governed by state labor boards such as California’s Public Employment Relations Board, which oversees collective bargaining for the state’s public-sector employees.

Most private-sector employees, though, run through the NLRB. This article follows that path.

How common is any of this? Union membership sat at 10.0 percent of wage and salary workers in 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, little changed from the year before. The split is lopsided: 32.9 percent in the public sector against 5.9 percent in the private.

Interest, though, runs well ahead of membership. The advocacy group Economic Policy Institute, projecting from a 2017 survey, argues that roughly 48 percent of nonunion workers would join one if they could, more than 60 million people. Organizing has picked up, too. The NLRB received 3,286 election petitions in fiscal year 2024, up 27 percent from the prior year and roughly double the 2021 figure.

For the long arc of how the movement got here, our earlier piece on how American unions have changed since the 1930s covers the background.

Signing Cards and Filing the Petition

The process almost always starts informally. A few coworkers get frustrated about pay, scheduling, safety, or discipline, they start talking, and sometimes they contact an existing union. None of that early conversation is governed by the NLRB.

The legal process really starts when workers begin collecting authorization cards. An authorization card is a short document saying the worker wants a named union to represent them.

A union can file for an election, an RC petition, “after collecting signatures from at least 30% of workers in the potential bargaining unit.” That 30 percent is called the “showing of interest.” It is a floor, not a goal.

Organizers almost never stop at 30 percent. Elections are won by a majority of those voting, and once a petition is filed the employer can campaign against the union. So a smart drive collects a clear majority before going anywhere near the Board.

The cards themselves are handled discreetly. Board agents review them privately to verify signatures and count the showing of interest, and, per NLRB guidance, they are not disclosed to the employer. Signing a card does not obligate you to vote for the union. It is evidence, not a ballot.

Timing is strict. The showing of interest must be filed with the petition or within 48 hours after, and no later than the last day the petition could timely be filed, or the petition can be dismissed. Collecting and safeguarding cards is not symbolic. It’s the proof that starts the clock.

The petition names the employer, any unions involved, and the proposed bargaining unit: the specific group of workers who will vote and, later, be covered by the contract. The Board then decides whether that group is an “appropriate unit” using what’s called a community-of-interest test: basically, do these workers share similar work, skills, conditions, supervision, and geography.

Unit lines matter more than they look. Employers often push for larger units, on the theory that a bigger electorate is harder for a union to carry. Unions sometimes want smaller units where their support is concentrated. Supervisors are excluded by law, so a fight over who counts as a supervisor is really a fight over the vote.

The Election, and the Cemex Wrinkle

Once the unit is settled, the Board directs a secret-ballot election, held at the worksite, by mail, or electronically. A majority of valid ballots cast wins. If the union wins, the Board certifies it as the exclusive representative.

The timelines here are fast by design. A law firm’s summary of the “quickie election” rules that took effect December 26, 2023 describes pre-election hearings as scheduled eight calendar days from the Notice of Hearing. The same summary describes the employer’s Statement of Position as due the seventh calendar day, and employers as required to post and distribute the election notice within two business days, with postponements beyond that two-day window described as permitted only in extraordinary circumstances.

What that means on the ground: once a petition is filed, notices go up within days, and both sides start campaigning. Workers on the margins of the unit (a recently promoted lead, a temp) may vote subject to challenge, their ballots set aside to be resolved only if they could swing the result.

There is a second path that skips the ballot entirely. In voluntary recognition, an employer agrees to recognize a union that shows majority support through cards. And in 2023 the Board raised the stakes on that choice.

In Cemex Construction Materials Pacific, decided August 25, 2023, the NLRB held that when a union requests recognition based on majority support, an employer must either recognize and bargain or “promptly file an RM petition seeking an election.”

The teeth are in the follow-through. Say an employer pursuing an RM election instead commits an unfair labor practice serious enough to warrant setting aside that election. The Board then dismisses the petition and orders the employer to recognize and bargain with the union rather than rerunning the vote.

That shifted real risk onto employers, and they fought it. In March 2026, the Sixth Circuit sided with them in Brown-Forman Corp. V. NLRB.

The court found that the Board had made a forward-looking rule through case-by-case adjudication instead of formal rulemaking: In crafting a forward-looking rule that governs when the Board will issue bargaining orders in future cases, the Board engaged in legislative rulemaking under the guise of adjudication. In plain terms: the Board made a broad rule by deciding one case, instead of going through the formal rule-writing process it is supposed to use.

The court left intact the Board’s findings that the employer had committed unfair labor practices, throwing out only the order to bargain that was based on the now-rejected Cemex rule.

The Sixth Circuit’s ruling was blunt: “we GRANT Brown-Forman’s petition for review, DENY the Board’s cross-petition for enforcement, and REMAND for proceedings consistent with this Opinion.” Within that circuit, the Cemex bargaining-order standard “is invalid.” Elsewhere, the picture is still unsettled, which means workers and employers may be operating under different rules depending on where they sit.

Once a valid election has been held in a bargaining unit, a one-year rule blocks a new petition in the same unit regardless of which side won. If it wins, certification is normally binding for a year, and a petition to undo it during that year will be dismissed. Once a contract is signed, a rule known as the “contract bar” generally blocks new elections for up to three years, with only a narrow window near expiration. Organizing, in other words, is not easily reversed.

Getting to a First Contract

Certification flips the switch from organizing to bargaining. The employer now has a legal duty to bargain in good faith, and the union has a duty to represent everyone in the unit fairly.

The union builds a bargaining committee, usually elected or appointed workers plus a staff negotiator or attorney, and surveys members on priorities: raises, health costs, staffing, scheduling, job security. The employer assembles its own team of HR staff, managers, and labor counsel.

Then they sit down and swap proposals. Each side puts forward proposed contract articles, then counters, swaps offers, and bundles items together. A union might accept more scheduling flexibility in exchange for stronger layoff protection. Information flows too: unions can request wage data, benefit costs, and overtime records, and the law has long required employers to hand over relevant information.

When talks stall, a neutral can help. The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service defines its work as “a voluntary process occurring when a third party neutral assists the two sides in reaching a collective bargaining agreement.” A mediator cannot impose anything. They clarify issues, float options, and keep talks moving.

Good-faith bargaining requires both sides to meet and try; it does not require agreement. The Economic Policy Institute reports that a majority of unions fail to reach a first contract within a year of unionizing.

When negotiators do reach a tentative deal, it goes back to the members for a ratification vote. If members approve, the contract binds both sides. If they reject it, negotiators go back to the table.

What’s Inside the Contract

A collective bargaining agreement is part paycheck, part rulebook. The economic core sets pay rates for each type of job, scheduled raises over the life of the deal, and premium pay for overtime or night shifts. Benefits follow: health insurance, retirement, paid leave, and how you earn each one over time.

Then come the structural provisions that decide who gets what. Seniority clauses typically govern layoffs (usually newest workers go first) and recalls (usually in order of seniority), sometimes with a rule called bumping rights that lets a senior worker displace a junior one to avoid layoff. Job-posting rules set how vacancies get filled.

Employers protect their side with a management rights clause, reserving the authority to hire, fire, set production methods, and direct the workforce, subject to the specific limits elsewhere in the contract.

The most consequential section is often the least glamorous: the grievance and arbitration procedure. A grievance is a formal claim that the employer broke the contract or treated someone unfairly. Arbitration is the last step, where a neutral third party issues a binding decision.

Federal-sector law spells out the model cleanly. Any negotiated grievance procedure must be fair and simple, and the statute makes it “the exclusive administrative procedures for resolving grievances which fall within its coverage.” Any grievance not settled goes to binding arbitration, which either side can invoke. Private-sector contracts borrow the same shape, often drawing arbitrators from an FMCS roster.

Most disputes never reach a hearing. Union grievances work differently depending on the sector, but the pattern holds: the vast majority settle or wash out long before an arbitrator rules.

Dues, and the Union’s Duty to Everyone

Once a contract is in place, the union has to be funded. Dues are set by the union’s own constitution or bylaws, not the government, and they tend to be modest as a share of pay. A SEIU local example runs 1.7 percent of gross wages, excluding overtime, deducted each pay period; most unions land somewhere in the 1 to 2 percent range. They are commonly collected through “dues checkoff,” a payroll deduction the employer sends to the union, which requires the member’s signed authorization.

Large unions also have to report their finances in detail to the government: any union taking in more than $250,000 a year files an LM-2 report with the Labor Department.

One legal rule shapes who pays: in right-to-work states, no one can be required to pay dues or fees at all, even when the union represents them. (We cover the fallout of the Janus decision and right-to-work laws in our piece on why labor unions are struggling despite record public support.)

That sets up a genuine tension. Because the union is the exclusive representative, it must bargain for and represent everyone in the unit, members and non-members alike. The duty of fair representation requires a union to represent all employees fairly, in good faith, and without discrimination, a principle the Supreme Court first recognized in the mid-1940s.

A non-member in a right-to-work state gets the negotiated wages and the grievance process without paying for them. Unions call that a free-rider problem; critics call it freedom of choice.

Day to day, enforcement runs through the grievance ladder. A worker raises an issue with a supervisor, often with a union steward present. For Virginia public school teachers, for instance, state regulations require a grievance to be initiated within 15 business days of the incident, or within 15 business days of when the employee knew or should have known of it, and it escalates step by step to higher management and HR.

Missed deadlines can waive a grievance, so the clock matters. Only the unresolved cases go to arbitration.

Separate from contract grievances, workers can file unfair labor practice charges with the Board.

State examples map the categories well. California’s PERB lists unlawful employer conduct as “refusing to negotiate in good faith with an employee organization; disciplining or threatening employees for participating in union activities; or unilaterally changing terms and conditions of employment without bargaining.”

When Talks Break Down: Impasse, Strikes, and Lockouts

Sometimes bargaining simply stops moving. That point is a deadlock, called an impasse.

In the private sector there is no panel that imposes a settlement. Pressure comes from economic weapons. Workers can strike; employers can lock workers out.

The rules around strikes give employers a powerful tool: it is not an unfair labor practice for an employer to replace its striking employees with others in an effort to carry on the business. What the employer cannot do is punish union supporters through those decisions: discrimination in the reinstatement of employees on strike, when done for the purpose of discouraging membership in a labor organization, violates federal labor law. In plain terms, an employer cannot refuse to rehire workers simply for backing the union.

That created a distinction unions weigh carefully. Economic strikers, striking over wages or conditions, can be permanently replaced. Unfair labor practice strikers, protesting the employer’s illegal conduct, have much stronger reinstatement rights.

Strikes are not the norm. The Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks “Major Work Stoppages,” defined as strikes or lockouts involving 1,000 or more workers lasting at least a full shift, and the annual count is small against the total number of bargaining relationships. When they do happen, the stakes are real. A labor-economics analysis found that strikers enjoyed 5 to 10 percent wage gains before the 1980s, though that effect largely disappeared after 1982.

Public-sector strikes carry a different charge, because the walkout hits residents, not customers. The 2012 Chicago Teachers Union strike is often described as a transformational moment that reshaped public debate over education and inequality.

And in many states, essential public workers cannot strike at all. Massachusetts is one: teacher strikes are illegal there.

When educators in Beverly and Marblehead walked out in November 2024, Governor Maura Healey pressed both districts to keep negotiating through the weekend after Gloucester reached a tentative deal, according to NBC Boston. An Essex County Superior Court judge imposed then conditionally waived financial penalties.

The Coverage Gap and the Rules Still in Flux

Two open questions sit underneath everything above, and both will shape what forming a union means over the next few years.

The first is structural. American bargaining is built firm by firm: workers organize one workplace, win one election, and get one exclusive representative for that unit.

A 2023 Eurofound analysis found that coverage in the U.S. is capped near the share of workers in unions, around 10 percent, while countries like France reach far higher coverage despite lower membership. That gap is why the enthusiasm EPI measured, tens of millions of workers wanting a union they do not have, keeps colliding with a system that makes each win expensive and local.

The second is legal, and unresolved right now. The Sixth Circuit vacated the Cemex bargaining-order standard within its own circuit, holding the Board built it the wrong way. But other circuits have not followed, and the NLRB’s own composition and posture can shift with each administration.

Employers watch this closely. We lay out that side of the argument in why business tends to dislike unions and how labor is responding.

For a worker weighing that first conversation, the mechanics are knowable: cards, a petition, an election, a contract, a grievance system. What is not yet knowable is how much the rules governing that path will look the same by the time the next drive begins.

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