Labor Board certifies vote to remove union officials who TPR employees say were unresponsive and ineffective

San Antonio, TX (August 6, 2026) – Employees of Texas Public Radio (TPR) have successfully regained their independence from Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) union bosses. The effort was led by Brian Kirkpatrick, who, with assistance from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) for a “decertification” election.

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. Decertification petitions require the support of at least 30% of workers in the unit, and Kirkpatrick’s petition was signed by a majority of his colleagues. The election was held July 17, 2026, and a majority of workers voted to remove the union.

“The petitioners here at Texas Public Radio are very pleased with the outcome of the union decertification vote,” commented Kirkpatrick. “We also want to thank our attorney from the National Right to Work Foundation for the invaluable counsel throughout the decertification process. We encourage others in need of legal guidance on workplace matters such as this to do the same. Moving ahead, each of us looks forward to working with the responsive leadership of Texas Public Radio on issues of salary and benefits based on individual job performance and merit.”

Union Bosses Unresponsive to Workers

The NLRB certified the results of the election on July 31. This officially ended SAG-AFTRA union officials’ monopoly bargaining power over the TPR workers, which is the government-granted power to represent every worker in a unit, regardless of whether they support the union. Despite being installed over a year ago, union bosses had yet to negotiate a contract for the employees they claimed to “represent.”

Texas is one of 26 states with a Right to Work law, which safeguards workers by making union membership and dues payment strictly voluntary. However, even in Right to Work states, federal law grants union officials the power to impose exclusive “representation” over every employee in a work unit—including those who never voted for, joined, or supported the union—dictating their terms and conditions of employment. Now that the decertification election has been certified, Kirkpatrick and his coworkers are free from the union’s dictates.

“We are proud to have assisted the workers at Texas Public Radio as they fought for their freedom from union bosses they don’t support,” commented National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “Around the country, workers are questioning union bosses’ priorities, as those officials demonstrate that they are out of step with the needs of the workers they supposedly ‘represent.’”