>Without reforms, a huge wave of unionization would find itself paralyzed in the bottleneck of the N.L.R.B. process.
>In fact, something like this has already happened. At the same time as the N.L.R.B. has been forced to dedicate so much of its time to the Starbucks campaign, the waiting time for various agency processes [increased](https://apps.nlrb.gov/link/document.aspx/09031d4583c9a800) by close to 50 percent. The success of Starbucks workers has most likely come at the expense of other workers whose efforts to insist on the recognition of their rights have languished in the N.L.R.B.’s growing backlog.
>Labor leaders have been saying for decades that the country’s labor laws make unionization too difficult and fail to protect workers from illegal employer resistance. Progressives have been pressing for the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, which would prohibit anti-union activity by employers. That legislation is sorely needed.
>But even more important is to revive and pass the Employee Free Choice Act, which would allow unions to be certified if a majority of workers sign certification cards. This would assess workers’ support or opposition to unionization without requiring the government to run costly elections.
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The commentariat doesn’t go to a ball bearings factory every morning before work and J-School grads know many classmates who ended up slinging coffee but none making hotel beds. So the NLRB puts everything else on the backburner for “relevance.”
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>Without reforms, a huge wave of unionization would find itself paralyzed in the bottleneck of the N.L.R.B. process.
>In fact, something like this has already happened. At the same time as the N.L.R.B. has been forced to dedicate so much of its time to the Starbucks campaign, the waiting time for various agency processes [increased](https://apps.nlrb.gov/link/document.aspx/09031d4583c9a800) by close to 50 percent. The success of Starbucks workers has most likely come at the expense of other workers whose efforts to insist on the recognition of their rights have languished in the N.L.R.B.’s growing backlog.
>Labor leaders have been saying for decades that the country’s labor laws make unionization too difficult and fail to protect workers from illegal employer resistance. Progressives have been pressing for the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, which would prohibit anti-union activity by employers. That legislation is sorely needed.
>But even more important is to revive and pass the Employee Free Choice Act, which would allow unions to be certified if a majority of workers sign certification cards. This would assess workers’ support or opposition to unionization without requiring the government to run costly elections.
The commentariat doesn’t go to a ball bearings factory every morning before work and J-School grads know many classmates who ended up slinging coffee but none making hotel beds. So the NLRB puts everything else on the backburner for “relevance.”