Workers Are Firing Their Unions at Record Rates — and the Momentum Is Only Building

WASHINGTON, D.C. — American workers are done waiting. Across the country, rank-and-file employees are voting out unions that put politics over paychecks, and they're doing it at a historic rate. NLRB data shows decertification petition filings are up nearly 40% since 2020. The workers are ready. The only question is whether Washington will match their momentum.

The recent results speak for themselves.

Recently, more than 100 Windstream telecom workers across 12 North Carolina locations voted out the Communications Workers of America. Worker Grant Diorio launched the effort in January after his coworkers agreed that CWA simply wasn't making their working lives better. "We look forward to being independent," he said after the vote was certified.

Days earlier, around 80 hotel workers at the Sofitel DC Lafayette Square voted to remove Unite Here Local 25 and the International Union of Operating Engineers. It should have been straightforward. It wasn't. Workers voted to remove Unite Here back in June 2024 — then spent nearly two years trapped while the union filed blocking charges it ultimately couldn't support. The union quietly dropped those charges in January 2026 when it became clear it had no evidence. The IUOE did the same after the NLRB investigated and dismissed their charges as meritless. Workers finally won. The system, however slowly, worked.

In Chicago, SEIU Local 73 didn't even wait to face the vote. After cafeteria worker Lisa Latelle led a majority of her coworkers in petitioning to remove the union, SEIU disclaimed interest and walked away. "SEIU union officials did not represent our interests in the workplace, yet money was constantly coming out of our paychecks to support their activities," Latelle said.

In Dallas, the Teamsters did the same — preemptively conceding before facing a vote after Penske driver Epifanio Hernandez and his coworkers filed to decertify. "The union isn't benefiting us the way it should. Instead of helping us progress, they hold many of us back," Hernandez said. "We deserve the freedom to speak for ourselves and make decisions that reflect what we actually want — not what the union decides for us."

On March 30th, a Florida Wells Fargo branch is set to vote to remove the CWA. Worker Virginia Fenton, who led the petition drive, says the union "overpromised and never delivered."

The wave is real — and Washington has a historic opportunity to meet it.

In Spruce Pine, North Carolina, miners at The Quartz Corp. filed a valid decertification petition (with more than enough signatures) and are still waiting for their vote. The United Mine Workers responded by filing a string of unfair labor practice charges, triggering a Biden-era blocking charge policy that allows unions to freeze decertification elections indefinitely while unproven allegations sit in limbo. Worker Blake Davis has filed a formal challenge with the NLRB in Washington, asking the full Board to reconsider the policy. As his filing states, allowing a self-interested party to block elections unilaterally "offends the entire structure and purpose of the Act: employee free choice."

The courts are already moving in the right direction. Just a few weeks ago, the Sixth Circuit struck down the Biden NLRB's Cemex standard, which had allowed unions to be imposed on workers without a secret-ballot election. In the case before the court, a distillery gave workers a raise, expanded merit pay, and added vacation time. Employees voted 45-14 against the union. The Biden NLRB ordered the company to bargain with the union anyway. The Sixth Circuit said no. Even the Washington Post editorial board recognized the opportunity — calling the Biden-era blocking charge policy "boneheaded" and noting that Trump has a clear opening to advance worker freedom.

The NLRB has its quorum. The courts have validated the case for reform. Workers are filing petitions in record numbers and showing up ready to vote. The conditions for a landmark pro-worker win don't get better than this.

Workers aren't asking for much — just the right to vote, the most fundamental protection the law already promises them. The Trump administration is in a position to deliver exactly that, and American workers are ready.