The National Labor Relations Board is dismissing unfair labor practice charges at historically high rates, according to a fresh analysis that points to staffing collapse and procedural hurdles as the driving forces.
Between January 2025 and late April 2026, the labor board tossed out 34.7% of charges filed by unions, a jump of 14.2 percentage points from the previous year. Dismissals of worker-filed charges surged even more sharply, hitting 67.4%, up 10.7 points from 2024. The Center for American Progress examined more than 40,000 cases to reach these figures.
The agency has been hollowed out in recent months. Bloomberg reported in February 2026 that regional offices are running 23% understaffed. The board shed roughly 150 workers in 2025 while hiring only eight, erasing more than 10% of its workforce and creating severe backlogs.
Trump's firing of board member Gwynne Wilcox left the NLRB without the minimum number of members needed to issue decisions for 345 consecutive days, further freezing case processing. Wilcox was the first Black woman to serve on the board.
Meanwhile, the Trump-appointed general counsel, Crystal Carey, a former attorney at the union-avoidance firm Morgan Lewis, issued guidance in February pushing the agency toward settlements rather than litigation. That same push was baked into procedural changes implemented in December 2025.
Those new rules require workers filing charges to submit extensive supporting documents within two weeks, creating technical barriers that make dismissals easier. Labor attorneys have reported charges being thrown out over docketing system glitches and minor paperwork failures.
The impact ripples beyond the case numbers. Union election filings dropped 30% in 2025, while the Trump administration moved to cancel collective bargaining agreements covering more than 1 million federal workers.
Aurelia Glass, the analyst who authored the report for the Center for American Progress, framed the stakes plainly. "Workers who are trying to organize unions already really face an uphill battle because employers get away with a slap on the wrist, even when they do break the law," she said. "These increases in dismissals are a really worrying sign for organizers who depend on the NLRB to be able to enforce these laws."
Glass pointed directly at the procedural changes as the culprit. "The procedural changes at their core make it easier for charges to be dismissed," she added. "Workers who are organizing unions really depend on fair enforcement of these labor laws."
Congress has continued slashing the labor board's budget even as the agency drowns in backlog. The NLRB declined to comment on the analysis.
Author James Rodriguez: "This isn't bureaucratic drift, it's deliberate starvation of an agency tasked with protecting workers, wrapped in procedural language that makes it look lawful."
Comments