Here are the highlights of what you missed if you weren’t at our June Labor Community Briefing call. Want the full analysis, the data behind these headlines, and the chance to ask questions in real time? Join us on the next call.

LRI Rightnow analyzed 190,743 unfair labor practice charges going back to 2016, and the data tells a story that has nothing to do with a surge in filings. Case intake rose only about 39%, but open inventory grew 195%, a collapse driven almost entirely by a drop in throughput capacity during the Abruzzo era. The 90-day resolution rate fell from 58% to 24%, and informal settlements dropped 55%. An estimated 6,700 excess cases remain open as a result.

Get the NLRB Backlog Report →

The House passed FLCA 230 to 193, and Sen. Josh Hawley is now carrying it in the Senate. The bill would force first-contract bargaining onto a strict clock: negotiations start within 10 days of an election win, a federal mediator takes over after 90 days, and a government-appointed arbitration panel hands down a binding two-year contract 30 days after that, with no ratification vote and no worker input on the terms. The justification rests on a claim that drawn-out negotiations drive workers to decertify their unions. Our new research on 124 decertification elections shows that claim does not hold up.

Get the Decertification Analysis →

A thousand UAW members walked out at Dauch Corp for 10 days, and Shawn Fain is calling the resulting deal, “$30 by 2030,” a 36% increase to the top wage rate over four years. Members approved it, but only by 80%. The real story is what gave the union its leverage: Dauch CFO Chris May revealed that GM had no alternate supplier for heavy-duty pickup parts and only a two-week stockpile on hand. The wage jump also has context Fain didn’t mention. This is largely a return to pre-2008 levels, after the union agreed to cut wages roughly in half from $29 during the Great Recession following an earlier UAW strike that hit profits hard.

The Board’s quorum under New Process Steel holds until August 27, 2026, or a new confirmation, whichever comes first. James Murphy chairs with a term running to December 2027, and Scott Mayer’s term runs to December 2029. David Prouty has been renominated, and James Macy awaits a committee vote on June 24. One Democratic seat remains open. Separately, OLMS is rolling out the most significant revision to the LM-2 union financial disclosure form since 2003, effective July 1, 2026, with first filings due June 30, 2027 for unions with $40 million or more in annual receipts. The new form grows from 24 to 32 schedules, splits organizing and contract administration into separate categories, and treats union-paid travel as compensation. The AFL-CIO is suing, arguing the DOL skipped the required notice-and-comment process.

View the OLMS Data Visualization Tool announcement →

•  Union convention season: Sean O’Brien secured another five-year Teamsters term in Las Vegas, Shawn Fain is seeking a second UAW term against five rivals, and Liz Schuler was reelected unopposed at the AFL-CIO

•  Gig driver sectoral bargaining: California’s new rideshare unionization law, and why the “App Drivers Union” card-check numbers don’t add up to what organizers are claiming

•  The Thryv circuit split lives on: the Supreme Court declined Macy’s appeal, leaving expansive remedies enforced in the Ninth Circuit but limited to back pay and reinstatement in the Third, Fifth, and Sixth

•  Joint employer standard in flux: Browning-Ferris reaffirmed at the D.C. Circuit, an Amazon DSP settlement under the 2020 standard, and Google’s appeal of its Accenture Flex joint employer finding

•  Healthcare unions are writing AI safeguards directly into contracts, with NYSNA leading the way at New York-Presbyterian and Northwell South Shore

•  Forest and supply-chain certification bodies quietly writing union access requirements into their standards, including the Forest Stewardship Council and Fairtrade