Results of NLRB union-representation elections, 1965-1998

Election-by-election results for NLRB union-representation cases (RC, RD, and RM petitions) from the mid-1960s through 1998. The data was originally maintained by the AFL-CIO in Washington, DC, then compiled and cleaned by JP Ferguson (now at McGill University) for use in academic research on union organizing.

Each row is one election that was actually held. Note that the data does NOT include organizing drives where petitions were filed but later withdrawn or dismissed before reaching a vote — for those, a much larger universe of records is needed (see cats for the 1999–2011 successor system).

Many internal NLRB code fields are preserved as-is from the source database; their mappings are not fully documented in the upstream cleaning scripts. The most analytically useful columns are the employer/union names, the vote totals (fst_votes, votes_no, valid_for, valid_cast), the bargaining-unit category, the election date, and won.

Data source: JP Ferguson

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Tables schema

nlrb_representation_1961_1998

nlrb_id, region, r_type, docket, sic, unit, elect_size, elect_type, elig_voter, fst_votes, fst_union, sec_votes, sec_union, thr_votes, thr_union, votes_no, challenged, elect_contr, objection_filed_date, obj_party, day_obj_el, ruling_obj, day_dec_el, req_review, elect_ctrl, hrngctrl, day_el_clo, stg_closin, meth_disp, participant, incumb_un, recordctrl, t_dt_filed, filed_date, company, address, pet_union, valid_for, valid_cast, t_dt_elect, election_date, won, recodemth, state, gsacty, local, local_name, mailballot, t_dt_closed, closed_date, zip, problem, city_name, county_name

224,822 rows

... and 1 hidden table

Download SQLite DB: nlrb_rc_elections_1961_1998.db 47.6 MB