US union elections declined in 2025 after Trump hobbled labor board | US unions

The number of union elections overseen by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) dropped 30% in 2025 after the Trump administration left the federal labor watchdog powerless, according to an analysis released on Wednesday.

The number of workers participating in union elections dropped by 59,000, a 42% decline compared with the year prior, according to the report from the Center for American Progress. The total number of union elections fell from a 10-year high of 2,124 in 2024 to 1,498 in 2025.

The success rate in union elections also dropped to 69.8% in 2025, after rising to 72% in 2023.

The NLRB presides over enforcing labor law in the private sector, including conducting union elections and enforcing the National Labor Relations Act. Workers file to hold an election with the NLRB once they have agreed to form a union but their employer doesn’t voluntarily recognize it.

Since the start of his second term, Trump has made unprecedented moves to freeze the board.

Days after taking office, Trump fired NLRB board member Gwynne Wilcox, leaving the board without a quorum needed to make decisions. When Trump eventually restored a quorum, he appointed two Republicans to fill the vacant seats, creating a conservative majority.

Though the NLRB was created to protect workers’ rights and rule on disputes, the political makeup of the board dictates how friendly it will be to either organizers or their employers.

The agency also lost about 100 employees due to early retirements and resignation buyouts pushed by Elon Musk’s unofficial “department of government efficiency”, leaving roughly 1,100 workers to oversee collective bargaining and labor practices in the private sector. In comparison, 1,545 employees worked at the agency in 2016.

The NLRB workforce declined during Trump’s first term, though the private sector workforce grew from 120 million in 2016 to more than 135 million in 2024. The NLRB did not return a request for comment.

The decline in union activity comes despite strong public support for unions across age, educational and partisan lines. Public approval for labor unions climbed from 56% in 2016 to 68% in 2025, according to Gallup.

Though the NLRB has been “relentlessly attacked” under the Trump administration, “workers still want unions”, said Aurelia Glass, author of the report and a policy analyst for the Center for American Progress’s American Worker Project.

“There’s still a lot of interest and a lot of momentum behind these campaigns, so I think workers are going to continue to try to find ways to move forward,” she said.