"I can't make changes alone, so I want to join a bigger organization," says Ertll, who works on organizing drives for Justice for Janitors.
The labor board oversees union elections, organizing drives and labor-management relations at private sector employers.
That tactic, these workers said, often took the wind out of organizing drives.
But the employers' fight doesn't stop when unions win organizing drives.
Mr. Wilhelm said organizing drives often took years and acknowledged that unionization successes had dropped off.
He has called on unions to boost dramatically the amount they spend on organizing drives.
In the past, unions have often sought to elbow each other aside during organizing drives, but the new plan urges unions to cooperate by conducting multi-union organizing drives and supporting each other in organizing campaigns.
SSOC members assisted labour organizing drives among textile workers, migrant workers, tobacco pickers, and campus employees throughout the South.
By crisis, he means myriad setbacks, including a steady loss of union membership, frequent defeats in organizing drives and unions being forced to accept multiyear wage freezes.
Unions also complain that many companies illegally fire union supporters during organizing drives and that it often takes the board three or four years to reinstate them.
Another factor that has pushed down unionization, he said, is that companies have grown more ideologically opposed to unions and more aggressive about resisting organizing drives.
