The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) recently announced that it will decide whether to stop the practice of union organizing through a process known as "card-check agreements." With a "card check" or "neutrality" agreement, companies agree to recognize a union that has collected signature cards from a majority of workers indicating that they want to join without forcing the union to go through a traditional secret-ballot election. Card-check argreements are have been used in many recent union organizing efforts.

The NLRB announced its intention to decide the matter as a result of a growing attack on neutrality agreements. The current case was brought to the NLRB by the National Right to Work Foundation, an organization founded in 1968 to change labor laws and challenge union organizing in the court system. National Right to Work's funding comes from wealthy industrialists' family foundations including the Coors' Castle Rock Foundation and the Olin's John M. Olin Foundation.

With the power of unions at a historical low, a NLRB ruling further restricting organizing would be a devastating to an already struggling movement. The AFL-CIO estimates that "card check" agreements enabled unions to get most of their annual recruits in recent years.