According to the NLRB, union petitions are on the rise—versus this same period last year, 35% more petitions have been filed. They report that "In total, 1,618 petitions were filed during this time, compared with 1,199 in the first half of Fiscal Year 2023." This uptick, says the NLRB, is particularly driven by last year's Cemex decision which has led to a spike in employer-filed RM election petitions; but the number of employee-filed RC petitions is also up appreciably.
Unfair labor practice charges are also up versus the first half of Fiscal Year 2023—the NLRB says these have increased by 7% from 9,612 to 10,278. This suggests we'll see a continuation of an ongoing trend: in previous years ULP charges went up by 10% (2023) and 19% (2022) versus the years prior.
All of this is, of course, making for a very large caseload on the NLRB—and the NLRB is not well funded. The NLRB describes the shortstaffing issue in fairly severe terms and is calling on Congress to fund the agency accordingly:
Last month, Congress flat-funded the NLRB at $299.2 million at a time when more resources are desperately needed. Last year, Congress gave the NLRB a $25 million increase, which ended a hiring freeze, prevented furloughs, and allowed the NLRB to backfill some critical staff vacancies. However, the Agency remains understaffed after flat funding in nine of the past 10 years. In the past two decades, staffing in field offices has shrunk by 50%.
It of course remains to be seen if this happens in the near future.