We don't often break from our regular publishing schedule, but today's story earned it. Today we're sending a single article in a standalone issue.

The subject: a decertification campaign at a potato processing plant in American Falls, Idaho, that fell just 10 votes short of succeeding. The final count was 311 to keep the union, 291 to remove it.

We had the chance to sit down with Kira Junod, the employee who drove the effort, along with her attorney from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, to hear how it unfolded, what fell short, and why she isn't finished.

The article is long. Read it anyway. Whether you're an HR or labor relations professional, an operations leader, or someone who advises employers, there's something here for you, including a close look at why a group of employees may no longer want union representation, union pressure tactics, what management did right, and what a near-miss decertification campaign looks like from the inside.

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Kira Junod didn't set out to lead a decertification campaign, and after a razor-thin defeat, she’s ready to try again.

It all started as a joke in the locker room. A couple of her coworkers were venting during contract negotiations and half-kidding about what it would take to get rid of the Teamsters union. They came back with papers the next day, so Kira figured she'd help gather signatures. She'd worked at the Lamb Weston potato processing plant in American Falls, Idaho, for nine years, so she knew people and could cover some ground.

What she didn't expect was what she'd hear along the way.

"As I started gathering signatures, I started hearing all these stories," Kira explained to LRI Consulting Services, Inc. By the time she connected with the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, the campaign had taken on a life of its own. "I hung up and thought, 'I think I just got a lawyer. What did I do?"

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