Card check, also called majority sign-up, is a method for employees to organize into a labor union, in which a majority of employees in a bargaining unit sign authorization forms, or "cards", stating they wish to be represented by the union. Based on this evidence that the majority of eligible employees want a union, the employees can request their employer to voluntarily recognize the union. In the United States, the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) enables voluntary recognition based on majority support an alternative to the National Labor Relations Board's (NLRB) election procedures.

As of 2025, card check allows for unionization without an election in five of Canada's ten provinces when a majority of employees indicate support via authorization cards. In Canada, card check was recognized nationwide prior to the 1980s, when six provinces mandated union elections, after which the country's union density declined by 7% from 1984 to 1998.

United States

Current law

Section 9(a) of NLRA () states that a union may be "designated or selected for the purposes of collective bargaining by the majority of the employees". There are three ways for workers to form a union in a particular workplace in the United States:

• A petition or an authorization card with the signatures of at least 30% of the employees requesting a union is submitted to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), then the NLRB orders and oversees a secret ballot election using NLRB election procedures.

• As an alternative, if a majority (over 50%) of the employees sign authorization cards requesting a union, the employees can present the evidence to the employer that a majority of employees want a union, and the employer can voluntarily choose to waive the secret ballot election process and recognize the union. The employees may work with a neutral third party to validate signed cards; validating signed cards with an arbitrator can protect the privacy of employees who signed cards or not. Based on the 2023 Cemex decision, if the employer does not choose to voluntarily recognize a union after presentation of majority support, the employer needs to file a petition with the NLRB to initiate a secret ballot election. As of 2026, the Cemex decision is undergoing appeals and challenges in court.

• As a last resort, the NLRB can order an employer to recognize a union if a majority of employees have signed cards and the employer has engaged in unfair labor practices that make a fair election unlikely.

Proposed law

Under the proposed Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), if the NLRB verifies that over 50% of the employees signed authorization cards, the secret ballot election is bypassed and a union is automatically formed. Introduced in the U.S. Congress in 2005 and reintroduced in 2007 and 2009, the EFCA provides that the NLRB would recognize the union's role as the official bargaining representative if a majority of employees have authorized that representation via card check, without requiring a secret ballot election. Under the EFCA, if over 30% and fewer than 50% of employees sign a petition or authorization cards, the NLRB would still order a secret ballot election for union representation.

History

Since the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 was passed, it has been legal for workers to form a union when a majority of employees in a bargaining unit sign cards indicating their intent to bargain collectively with the employer. The National Labor Relations Board in its early days "certified on the record when there had been an agreement with the employer for card-check" ... "in the final year before the Taft-Hartley Act was passed [in 1947], 646 representation petitions were informally resolved through the card-check procedure".

In 1949, the NLRB's Joy Silk doctrine established that "an employer could lawfully refuse to bargain with a union claiming representative status through possession of authorization cards only if he had a 'good faith doubt' as to the union's majority status."

In 1969, Chief Justice Earl Warren delivered the majority opinion for the U.S. Supreme Court that upheld the use of card check. Warren stated, "Almost from the inception of the Act, then, it was recognized that a union did not have to be certified as the winner of a Board election to invoke a bargaining obligation; it could establish majority status by other means... by showing convincing support, for instance, by a union-called strike or strike vote, or, as here, by possession of cards signed by a majority of the employees authorizing the union to represent them for collective bargaining purposes." NLRB v. Gissel Packing Co., (1969). The Supreme Court has consistently ruled in favor of card check, and Warren cited prior affirmations in NLRB v. Bradford Dyeing Assn., (1940); Franks Bros. Co. v. NLRB, (1944); United Mine Workers v. Arkansas Flooring Co., (1956).

Support

Supporters of card check argue that it makes it easier for workers to join unions. For example, in his remarks accompanying the introduction of the Employee Free Choice Act, Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), former chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Education and Labor, described the limitations of the system of NLRB elections:

Barack Obama supported the bill. An original co-sponsor of the Employee Free Choice Act, then-Sen. Obama urged his colleagues to pass the bill during a 2007 motion to proceed:

The AFL–CIO stated the following in arguing that the company-controlled secret ballots actually make the process less democratic:

Opposition

Those who oppose card check argue it strips workers of their right to a secret ballot. They also argue that even though gathering a majority of card signers might imply that a secret ballot would be unnecessary, signers could be coerced to sign through intimidation and pressure; the same could also be said of employers in the period between sign-up and a secret ballot. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, opposed the implementation of card check:

The National Restaurant Association lists three points in opposition to card check on its website.

Representative John Kline, R-Minn., in explaining his opposition to the EFCA:

References

External links

• Coalition for a Democratic Workplace

• Dr. Gordon Lafer. "Neither Free nor Fair: The Subversion of Democracy under NLRB Elections".

• John Logan, "The Union Avoidance Industry in the United States".

• John Logan, "Consultants, Lawyers, and the 'Union-Free' Movement in the USA since the 1970s".

• American Rights at Work Fact Sheet: Majority Sign-up Q&A

• Employee Free Choice Act Now!

• Employee Free Choice Act Updates