diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 16e296f7..5b31e2da 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@
 * Use QUALIFY clause in `deduplicate` macro for Redshift by @yauhen-sobaleu in https://github.com/dbt-labs/dbt-utils/pull/811
 * get redshift external tables by @brendan-cook-87 in https://github.com/dbt-labs/dbt-utils/pull/753
 * Equality test will now raise an error when the second model has less columns than the first by @rlh1994 in https://github.com/dbt-labs/dbt-utils/pull/765
+* union_relations macro now outputs '*' in compile mode when the upstream relations haven't been built, such as when running SQLFluff on new models
 
 ### Documentation
 
@@ -43,6 +44,7 @@
 * @yamotech made their first contribution in https://github.com/dbt-labs/dbt-utils/pull/876
 * @PChambino made their first contribution in https://github.com/dbt-labs/dbt-utils/pull/853
 * @pruoff made their first contribution in https://github.com/dbt-labs/dbt-utils/pull/856
+* @martinshjung made their first contribution in https://github.com/dbt-labs/dbt-utils/pull/832
 
 **Full Changelog**: https://github.com/dbt-labs/dbt-utils/compare/1.1.1...1.2.0
 
diff --git a/macros/sql/union.sql b/macros/sql/union.sql
index ac289e2f..0d1f8961 100644
--- a/macros/sql/union.sql
+++ b/macros/sql/union.sql
@@ -103,6 +103,12 @@
                 cast({{ dbt.string_literal(relation) }} as {{ dbt.type_string() }}) as {{ source_column_name }},
                 {%- endif %}
 
+                /* No columns from any of the relations.
+                   This star is only output during dbt compile, and exists to keep SQLFluff happy. */
+                {% if dbt_command == 'compile' and ordered_column_names|length == 0 %}
+                    *
+                {% endif %}
+
                 {% for col_name in ordered_column_names -%}
 
                     {%- set col = column_superset[col_name] %}