A Starbucks in Seattle, an Amazon warehouse in Staten Island, and a Chipotle restaurant in Lansing, Michigan each made history by becoming the first locations at their respective companies to unionize. In the process, they’ve rekindled American support for the labor movement. But the real fight begins after voting to unionize, as workers race against the clock to secure their first contract before decertification risks shattering the union before it gains momentum.
When workers win union elections, little changes in the short term. They aren’t immediately granted the improved working conditions or salary requests they lobbied for during the union campaign—merely the right to begin collectively negotiating for them. Workers rush to negotiate their contract within one year of winning a union vote, when the decertification bar, which prohibits employers from holding a vote to disband the union, lapses. Employers know this and so often use sophisticated union avoidance efforts to delay signing a contract during the bargaining process, says Joseph Richardson, a lawyer at the labor law firm Willig, Williams, and Davidson. “It can take the form of bargaining that walks right up to the line, perhaps a little bit over, in terms of what is allowed,” he says.
It takes unions an average of 409 days to negotiate a contract, according to a study conducted by Bloomberg Law. And just under half of newly formed unions reach a contract before the one year decertification deadline,...
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