5 STEPS.
ONE GOAL.

TALK

Have private conversations with trusted coworkers. Gauge support.

Start 1-on-1. Use personal phones or in-person conversations. Never use company email, Slack, or devices for organizing conversations. Ask: "Have you ever felt the workload was unfair?" Listen more than you talk. You're building trust, not recruiting.

ORGANIZE

Form a committee of 1 person per team or department.

Your organizing committee should represent 10–15% of the workplace. Aim for diversity across departments, seniority levels, and roles. These are your stewards: they gather information, spot concerns, and keep momentum. Committee members should be the most trusted voices in each pocket of the workplace. This is the Step Zero work. If you jumped straight here, go back and build the committee first.

SIGN

Collect authorization cards. You need 30% to petition the NLRB.

Authorization cards are signed statements from workers saying they want union representation. You need 30% to file a petition, but aim for 65–70%. More support means a stronger showing and a harder case for management to suppress. Cards are confidential. Never share them with management.

Go public deliberately, all at once. The public letter with names on it, the delegation walking it in to management, and the petition filed at the NLRB, all the same day. Simultaneity is protection: mass, public, and on the record beats leaking out one nervous conversation at a time. A campaign that dribbles into the open gives management weeks to pick off supporters one by one before the law is even in play. Fully remote? Same principle, different stage: a coordinated same-morning email from personal accounts, and the whole committee appearing at the next all-hands in the same minute with the same message. Simultaneity works on a screen too.

FILE

Submit your petition to the NLRB. Your employer gets notified. The clock starts.

File an RC Petition (Petition for Certification of Representative) online at nlrb.gov/efiling or at your regional NLRB office. Look for the "RC" petition in the NLRB filing system. Your authorization cards (or signature sheets) are your "showing of interest": they must be filed with the NLRB regional office along with the petition, or within 2 days after. They are confidential: the NLRB never shows them to your employer, and your employer never learns who signed. Your employer will be notified of the petition itself.The NLRB targets scheduling elections within approximately 25 business days of filing, though contested situations can take 6–10 weeks. Regional offices kept running elections even through the Board's 2025 quorum crisis (filing still works), and the Board regained a full quorum in 2026, but expect contested questions to be decided by a Republican majority that leans management as of August 2026. Plan accordingly.Tripwire one: your 30% showing of interest is measured against the FINAL unit. If the employer wins a broader unit at the hearing, your percentage recomputes against the bigger headcount, so over-collect cards.Tripwire two: under Board rules in effect since late 2024, a ULP charge filed mid-campaign can put your own election on hold. Weigh the timing of any charge with a lawyer.Expect management to begin a counter-campaign immediately. Know your rights during this window.

VOTE

Win the secret ballot election. Majority rules. Your employer must negotiate.

The NLRB conducts a secret ballot election at your workplace. A simple majority of votes cast wins, not a majority of all workers. This is why turnout is everything. An inactive supporter who stays home is effectively a vote against. Organize for maximum turnout.Fully remote or scattered across offices? Expect a MAIL-BALLOT election, not a one-day vote: the NLRB mails ballots out and counts them weeks later, so the committee's job becomes chasing every single ballot back. That is completely different turnout mechanics from an in-person election day.Either way, one rule binds YOUR side too: no mass campaign meetings on work time within 24 hours of the election (or of the ballot mailing). Break it and the employer can object and get your win set aside. One-on-ones stay legal to the end. In close elections, challenged ballots (disputed voter eligibility) can delay certification and determine the outcome.If you win, your employer is legally required to recognize the union and bargain in good faith over your first contract, meaning they must come to the table, exchange proposals, and respond in writing. They are NOT required to agree to anything. The average first contract now takes 465 days (well over a year) to sign (Bloomberg Law analysis; the most recent published one, using data through 2022), and delay is a deliberate management strategy. Win the election knowing this so nothing comes as a surprise. If you lose, you can petition again after 12 months.

Who runs the campaign: you, or us?

What's your staff-to-member ratio?

What's the strike benefit, and when does it kick in?

What have you won for units our size? (Agencies run 25–80 people; ask for specifics at that scale.)

Use Signal with disappearing messages enabled for organizing conversations. Not iMessage, not WhatsApp, not Google Messages. The moment you're documenting an incident for a legal charge, turn disappearing messages OFF for anything relevant and preserve it: auto-delete continuing after that can be attacked as evidence destruction.

Company-provided VPNs route your personal device traffic through employer systems. Don't use them while organizing.

Work-provided laptops may have endpoint monitoring software that logs keystrokes and screenshots. Treat them as hostile.

In open-plan offices, conversations carry further than you think. Have sensitive conversations outside the building.

Slack, Teams, and Gmail messages are discovery documents in NLRB proceedings: assume anything you write there will be read by management's lawyers.

Never organize on company Zoom, Teams, or Meet: employer-controlled accounts record and log. A Signal call, or a personal-account video call between people you've already vetted one-on-one, is how distributed committees actually work.

Organizing during work TIME on company property may be restricted. However, your break time and lunch time on company property ARE protected: the restriction is on work time, not work location.

Keep your committee small and tight-knit in the early stages

Document everything: conversations, incidents, management behavior

Don't reveal the campaign early: build to a 65–70% supermajority before going public

Connect with an established union (CWA, OPEIU, or the NewsGuild) for experienced support

Expect a management "persuasion campaign" after you file. Prepare your coworkers