They control that process, and they know how to win using it. Statistics compiled on NLRB elections document that unions only win about half of them, and more in smaller companies than larger ones. Even worse, unions only win contracts with half of the companies where workers vote for union representation. Using a barrage of legal tactics, anti-union law firms try to carve out a bargaining unit of workers with a minimum of union support. Unionbusters show videos, depicting violent strikes, while carefully-coached management representatives tell workers they'll have to strike if the union wins.
Unions do win some representation elections.
Strong committees of workers, which fearlessly show their union support, confront management and demand immediate improvements in conditions, can short-circuit much of the propaganda war. Nevertheless, unionbusting consultants have thrived as the legal process has become more and more skewed. In short order, the hotel had fired two of the most active union supporters. Nationally, the AFL-CIO estimates that one worker out of every ten participating in a union organizing campaign loses their job. Union research documented a long history of unionbusting by ACG, and its predecessor, the West Coast Industrial Relations Association.