Union Activity Down, But Not Out

June 8, 2000 9:30 AM, EDT

Although Teamsters’ organizing activity has fallen off in the past year, it remains far and away the most active of all labor unions, according to data compiled by the Labor Relations Institute.

The Teamsters were involved in 768 representation elections in 1999, which is down from its historical average of 900 elections a year, but still well ahead of the second-place Service Employees International Union, which held 167 elections.

Scott Carmichael, vice president of the institute in Tulsa, Okla., said the drop is due to uncertainty related to the change in administration at the Teamsters.

Overall, unions win about half of all representation elections, but the Teamsters fared a little worse than that, losing 59% of the votes conducted in 1999.

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