02/20/2026
A union election doesn’t start with a vote in the break room, it starts with a formal legal process.
Employees can’t form a union through informal agreement or casual conversations with management.
Before anything is filed, there has to be clear employee interest in union representation.
That interest is usually shown through signed authorization cards completed voluntarily by employees.
At least 30 percent of the proposed employee group must support union representation for the process to move forward.
Once that threshold is met, a petition for representation is filed with the National Labor Relations Board.
The Board reviews whether the petition is valid, whether the employee group is appropriate, and whether it has authority over the workplace.
If there are disputes about who can vote or how the group is defined, a hearing may be required before moving ahead.
If not, a secret ballot election is held, and if the union wins, it becomes the employees’ bargaining representative.