How to Unionize a Small Business: Cards, Election, Bargaining

To unionize a small business, a group of coworkers signs authorization cards designating a union to represent them, and then either asks the employer to recognize the union voluntarily or files a petition with the National Labor Relations Board for a secret-ballot election. The right to do this is protected by federal law, the process is free to workers, and it can start with as few as two or three people willing to organize.¹

The steps below follow the order an organizing committee actually works through them.

Confirm Your Workplace Is Covered

The NLRB uses dollar-based thresholds to decide whether a business is connected enough to interstate commerce for federal jurisdiction. Retail businesses (a category that includes restaurants, hotels, amusement businesses, and home construction) qualify at $500,000 or more in annual gross volume. Non-retail businesses qualify at $50,000 or more in annual inflow from out of state or outflow to out of state. Shopping centers and office buildings have a $100,000 threshold.²

Some workers are excluded from the NLRA regardless of employer size: agricultural laborers, domestic workers in a private home, independent contractors, and anyone employed by a parent or spouse.³ Railroad and airline employees fall under the Railway Labor Act. Government employees at every level are outside the NLRA, though many have collective bargaining rights under other statutes. Nonprofit religious educational institutions affiliated with a recognized religious organization are generally exempt.⁴

Define Who Is In the Union

Before collecting signatures, decide which employees will make up the “bargaining unit.” The Board groups workers by community of interest: similar job duties, pay structures, work locations, supervision, and schedules. Five shipping clerks and three inventory specialists reporting to the same manager on the same shifts would likely form one appropriate unit. Federal law allows a unit to be organized by employer, craft, plant, or a subdivision of any of those, and the Board has broad discretion over what qualifies.⁵ Professional employees can’t be lumped with non-professionals unless a majority of the professionals vote to be included.

Supervisors are not part of the unit. Federal law defines a supervisor as someone with authority to hire, fire, suspend, promote, discipline, or direct other employees using independent judgment.³ A lead worker who assigns tasks but has no real power over hiring or discipline probably isn’t a supervisor. A shift manager who can write people up and approve time off usually is. Sorting this out early prevents delays later.

Collect Signed Authorization Cards

An authorization card is a written statement from an employee saying they want a specific union to represent them. Each card needs the employee’s printed name, signature, and the date signed.⁶ Federal rules require signatures from at least 30% of the unit to file a valid petition, but experienced organizers rarely file at the minimum.⁷ Turnover, cold feet, and occasional invalid cards can erode a thin margin fast, so many unions wait until they have 60% to 70% support before filing.

Cards stay confidential. They go to the NLRB regional office for verification, not to the employer. Your boss cannot legally demand to see who signed or pressure anyone to reveal whether they did.

Cards do double duty. If more than 50% of the unit signs, the union can skip the election and ask the employer to recognize it directly.

Ask for Voluntary Recognition, or File a Petition

With a card majority, the union can demand voluntary recognition. Under the Board’s Cemex framework, announced in August 2023, an employer who receives a recognition demand based on majority card support has two choices: recognize the union or promptly file its own election petition (an RM petition). If the employer files for an election and then commits unfair labor practices serious enough to taint the vote, the Board will dismiss the petition and order the employer to recognize and bargain with the union anyway.⁸

If the employer won’t recognize the union voluntarily, or if the union prefers to go straight to a vote, the next step is filing NLRB Form 502, the representation petition. The form asks for the employer’s full legal name and address, a description of the job classifications included in and excluded from the unit, the number of employees in the proposed unit, and the union’s contact information.⁹

File the petition electronically with the regional office covering the business’s location. You also have to serve a copy on the employer along with a blank Statement of Position form and a Description of Procedures document, then file proof of service with the region along with the petition and the showing-of-interest cards.¹⁰ Errors in the unit description are the most common cause of employer challenges that slow the case down.

The Election and Certification

Once the petition is filed, an NLRB agent investigates jurisdiction and unit appropriateness. If the two sides agree on the unit and election details, they sign a Stipulated Election Agreement setting the date, time, and location. Under the Board’s procedural rules amended in August 2023, agreed elections have historically reached a ballot in roughly three to four weeks from the petition date.¹¹ If the employer disputes the unit, the regional director schedules a pre-election hearing, typically about eight days after issuing the notice.

Once an election is directed or agreed to, the employer must turn over a voter list with names and addresses of every eligible voter. The union needs this to communicate with workers before the vote.

Voting is by secret ballot, in person or by mail, run by NLRB agents. A simple majority of votes cast wins. If ten people vote and six choose the union, the union wins, even if the unit has twenty eligible voters. Turnout matters more than unit size.⁵ Either side has seven days after the count to file objections. If none are filed or all are overruled, the Board issues a certification of representative, and the employer is legally required to bargain.

What Your Employer Cannot Do During Organizing

Section 8(a)(1) of the NLRA makes it an unfair labor practice for an employer to interfere with, restrain, or coerce employees who are organizing.¹² The four categories most often cited are known as TIPS:

Threats: telling employees the business will close, cut benefits, or worsen conditions if they vote yes.
Interrogation: questioning employees about their union sympathies, asking who signed cards, or polling workers without following strict NLRB safeguards.
Promises: offering raises, promotions, or new benefits to discourage a yes vote. Soliciting grievances during a campaign can be treated as an implied promise to fix problems in exchange for rejecting the union.
Surveillance: spying on union meetings, photographing employees engaged in organizing, or creating the impression that you’re monitoring who supports the union.¹³

Firing or disciplining a worker for union activity can lead to Board-ordered reinstatement and back pay. Under Cemex, serious misconduct during a campaign can result in the employer being ordered to recognize the union without an election.

Employers keep some free speech rights. They can share factual information, express opinions about unionization, and describe their own experiences with unions, as long as those statements contain no threats or promises of benefit.¹² The line between a prediction and a threat is thin, and that’s where employers most often get into trouble.

You have your own protections under Section 7. You can discuss wages and working conditions with coworkers, distribute union materials in non-work areas during non-work time, and wear union buttons or insignia, whether or not a petition has been filed.¹

After Certification: Bargaining a First Contract

Winning the election is a milestone, not an automatic change to anyone’s pay or working conditions. What it creates is a legal duty on the employer to bargain in good faith over wages, hours, and other terms of employment.¹⁴ Refusing to meet at reasonable times, going through the motions with no intent to reach agreement, or unilaterally changing working conditions during negotiations are all unfair labor practices. Pay rates, health insurance, scheduling, overtime, and discipline procedures are all mandatory subjects of bargaining.¹⁵

First contracts are hard. Both sides are building a relationship from scratch, often right after a contentious campaign. If talks stall, the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service provides free mediation. FMCS mediators are neutral federal employees who facilitate discussion and can offer training on negotiating an initial contract, though they have no power to impose terms.¹⁶

Right-to-Work Laws and Dues

Certification makes the union the exclusive representative of everyone in the unit, but it does not automatically mean everyone pays dues. Roughly 26 states have right-to-work laws that prohibit requiring union membership or dues payment as a condition of employment; Michigan’s 2024 repeal brought the count down from 27. In those states, the union still has to represent every worker in the unit, but individuals can opt out of paying. In states without right-to-work laws, contracts can require all bargaining unit employees to pay dues or an equivalent fee as a condition of continued employment. For a small-shop union, this affects how much support you need to build before filing, since a bare majority in a right-to-work state may not fund contract enforcement.

Practical Tips for a Small-Shop Drive

When the whole unit is eight or twelve people, one or two shifts in support can flip the outcome. A few habits tend to matter more at that scale:

Talk one-on-one first. A mass meeting before you know where people stand can backfire. Quiet conversations with trusted coworkers let you gauge support without tipping off management prematurely.
Pick the right union. Not all unions organize all industries. Research which ones represent workers in your field and contact their organizing departments. An experienced organizer can help with card language and petition filing.
Document everything. If management retaliates through schedule changes, write-ups, or termination, contemporaneous notes and records become the evidence for an unfair labor practice charge.
Use the NLRB. Regional offices take questions from workers considering organizing, and there is no charge for filing a petition or an unfair labor practice charge.

1
National Archives. National Labor Relations Act (1935)
2
National Labor Relations Board. Jurisdictional Standards
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 152 – Definitions
4
National Labor Relations Board. NLRB Declines Jurisdiction Over Faculty at Religious Institutions
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 159 – Representatives and Elections
6
GovInfo. The NLRB and You – Representation Cases
7
National Labor Relations Board. Conduct Elections
8
National Labor Relations Board. Board Issues Decision Announcing New Framework for Union Representation Proceedings
9
National Labor Relations Board. NLRB Form 502 (RC) – RC Petition
10
National Labor Relations Board. Steps for Filing a Petition
11
Federal Register. Representation-Case Procedures
12
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 158 – Unfair Labor Practices
13
National Labor Relations Board. Interfering with Employee Rights (Section 7 and 8(a)(1))
14
National Labor Relations Board. Bargaining in Good Faith with Employees Union Representative (Section 8(d) and 8(a)(5))
15
National Labor Relations Board. Collective Bargaining (Section 8(d) and 8(b)(3))
16
Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. Initial Contracts