In a win for organized labor, the National Labor Relations Board on Wednesday approved sweeping new rules that would speed the pace of union elections, making it easier for unions to gain members at companies that have long rebuffed them.
Business groups quickly denounced the move, saying it limits the time employers have to present their own case to workers about the impact of joining a union. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has already filed a federal lawsuit challenging the rules.
The rules, which take effect April 30, simplify procedures and reduce legal delays that can hold up union elections after employees at a work site gather enough signatures to form a union.
“This rule is about giving all employees who have petitioned for an election the right to vote in a timely manner and without the impediment of needless litigation,” board Chairman Mark G. Pearce said.
The NLRB, now dominated by President Obama’s appointees, has emerged as a partisan flash point in recent years, with business lobbies complaining the agency now leans too far toward union interests.
Unions say the old organizing rules allowed companies to file frivolous appeals, stalling elections for months or years. The new rules could help unions make inroads at businesses such as Target and Wal-Mart, which have successfully resisted union organizing drives for years.
But business groups claim the new plan allows “ambush” elections that don’t give company managers enough time to respond.
“This decision erodes employers’ free speech and due-process rights and opens the door to rushed elections that will deny employees access to critical information,” said Katherine Lugar, executive vice president for public affairs at the Retail Industry Leaders Association.
Most union elections currently are held 45 to 60 days after a union gathers enough signatures to file a petition. The new rules could shorten that time by several weeks, depending on the situation.
Many employers use the time leading up to an election to talk to workers about the cost and impact of joining a union. But union officials claim the lag time is often used to pressure or intimidate workers against forming a union.
“It’s good news that the NLRB has taken this modest but important step to help ensure that workers who want to vote to form a union at their workplace get a fair opportunity to do so,” said AFL-CIO President Richard L. Trumka.
While union leaders publicly tried to play down the new rules as a modest development, labor experts called the change significant. Unions have seen their ranks dwindle steadily over the past three decades to 11.9 percent of the workforce.
“Employers wouldn’t have fought against it so hard if it wasn’t going to make a difference,” said Kate Bronfenbrenner, director of labor education research at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations.
The lawsuit filed by business groups late Tuesday claims the board circumvented its own operating procedures to issue this rule, and that the rule itself short-circuits safeguards meant to ensure fair elections.
“The blatantly partisan purpose of this rule is to ensure that employers have no time to talk to their workers about unionizing,” said Robin S. Conrad, executive vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s public policy law firm, the National Chamber Litigation Center.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.