National Labor Relations Board certifies election freeing 83 employees from unwanted union
Birmingham, AL (May 27, 2026) – Employees at a Sherwin-Williams Packaging Coatings Group production facility have freed themselves from the unwanted “representation” of International Brotherhood of Boilermakers union officials. The workers’ effort was spearheaded by Jacob Miller, who filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), seeking a “decertification” election to end the Boilermakers’ exclusive bargaining powers over the workers. Miller’s petition was filed with free legal aid from the National Right to Work Foundation.
The NLRB is the federal agency responsible for enforcing federal labor law, a task that includes administering elections to install (or “certify”) and remove (or “decertify”) unions. The workers filed a majority-backed petition with the NLRB to trigger a secret-ballot election among all 83 full-time and regular part-time production, maintenance, and quality employees employed by Sherwin-Williams at its 90 Carson Road, Birmingham, facility.
Miller’s petition was signed by enough of his coworkers to prompt the NLRB to schedule a union decertification vote. Following the workers election on May 6-7, in which a majority of workers voted against the union, NLRB Region 10 certified the election results to formally end Boilermakers union bosses’ exclusive representative status on May 15.
Alabama is one of 26 states with Right to Work protections, which safeguard workers by making union membership and dues payment strictly voluntary. However, even in Right to Work states, union officials can impose exclusive bargaining control upon all workers in a workplace, meaning they can dictate working conditions even for employees who oppose the union.
“We congratulate Mr. Miller and his coworkers on exercising their legal right to terminate the presence of unwanted Boilermakers union bosses at their workplace,” commented National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “While the workers at Sherwin-Williams were able to have their election administered and certified in a prompt manner, many more American workers remain trapped in union rank-and-file by union bosses abusing NLRB policies that undermine employees’ legal right to vote out unwanted unions.
“We hope the Trump NLRB will take the needed measures to protect workers from the rampant abuses of Big Labor by overturning the agency’s biased policies that block or bar decertification elections,” added Mix.
The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation is a nonprofit, charitable organization providing free legal aid to employees whose human or civil rights have been violated by compulsory unionism abuses. The Foundation, which can be contacted toll-free at 1-800-336-3600, assists thousands of employees in about 200 cases nationwide per year.
