One thing I have determined with this newly-cleaned data is that the United States Postal Service (USPS) accounts for a hugely disproportionate share of the NLRB caseload.
This is not because there are a bunch of union elections at the Postal Service. The National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC), American Postal Workers Union (APWU), National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association (NRLCA), and the National Postal Mail Handlers Union (NPMHU) already represent almost all USPS workers. These workers are not just unionized, but also have collective-bargaining agreements.
Instead, virtually all of the USPS activity at the NLRB is unfair labor practice (ULP) charges.
The charges brought against the postal unions are generally individuals alleging that their union violated the duty of fair representation (DFR). Most of these charges appear to be without merit, as less than 15 percent of them result in some kind of remedy, whether a formal remedy from the Board or an adjusted dismissal/withdrawal. This is pretty typical of DFR charges across the country. What usually happens is an individual worker tries to pursue a grievance, the union decides the grievance is no good and opts not to pursue it, and the individual worker files a meritless DFR charge against the union.
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