By Nelson Cary and Lauren Sanders on Posted in Elections,NLRBThe 2014 Election Rule is here to stay— at least for the next two months. On Friday, the NLRB extended the time for filing responses to the Request for Information until March 19, 2018. As we previously reported, the 2014 Election Rule, also known as the “ambush” or “quickie” election rule, speeds up the representation… Continue Reading
By Allen Kinzer on Posted in Elections,Union Organizing,UnionsIn a one-sentence order, the United States Court of Appeals in D.C. may have set the stage for Volkswagen to overturn a UAW election win. After the new Republican majority on the NLRB reversed the Obama Board’s micro-unit decision, the NLRB then moved to have the Volkswagen case sent back to it for further review.… Continue Reading
By Nelson Cary and Lauren Sanders on Posted in Elections,Union OrganizingOn the heels of the NLRB’s recent decision changing the approach to determining whether a proposed bargaining unit is appropriate, the NLRB General Counsel issued a memorandum explaining how regional offices around the country should apply that decision to pending election cases. As we discussed on this blog last week, the NLRB’s recent decision in PCC… Continue Reading
By Nelson Cary and Lauren Sanders on Posted in Elections,RulemakingOn Wednesday, the NLRB announced that it would ask for public input on the 2014 Election Rule, sometimes known as the “ambush” or “quickie” election rule. The 2014 Election Rule speeds up the representation election procedure, allowing union votes to occur in much less time than was previously the case. For example, as we previously reported,… Continue Reading
By Allen Kinzer on Posted in Elections,Union OrganizingBy nearly a 2-to-1 margin, Nissan’s production and maintenance employees at its Canton, Mississippi facility rejected UAW representation. The count was 2,244 “no” votes to 1,307 “yes” votes. The UAW had invested heavily for over six years in trying to convince Nissan’s Mississippi workers to vote “yes.” Through demonstrations and rallies featuring actor Danny Glover,… Continue Reading
By Allen Kinzer on Posted in Elections,Union OrganizingOn July 16, the UAW and Nissan entered into a Stipulated Election Agreement with the NLRB. Under the Agreement, the UAW agreed that only the production and maintenance workers employed directly by Nissan would be able to vote. The Agreement excludes from the bargaining unit “temporary employees” and “contract employees,” and specifically excludes those workers… Continue Reading
By Allen Kinzer on Posted in Elections,Union OrganizingOn July 10, the UAW filed a NLRB Petition for Election to represent all of the production and maintenance workers at Nissan’s Canton, Mississippi manufacturing facility. The facility has over 6,500 workers. The petition could not only include the production and maintenance workers employed directly by Nissan, but also include contract workers employed by Kelly… Continue Reading
By Nelson Cary on Posted in Elections,Union OrganizingBecause the team I was pulling for in the NCAA tournament exited last week, I was only loosely paying attention to the game last night. As I cruised Twitter, this tweet from Acting NLRB Chair Miscimarra (R) caught my eye: Divided NLRB permits election where NLRB notice gives some voters 3 days’ notice they are in… Continue Reading
By Allen Kinzer on Posted in Elections,Union Organizing,UnionsEarlier this month, Volkswagen appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., in an effort to overturn the NLRB’s decision upholding the UAW’s election win to represent about 165 skilled maintenance workers within VW’s Chattanooga plant. VW contends that the UAW should not be permitted to represent a small segment of the production… Continue Reading
By Nelson Cary and George Stevens on Posted in Elections,Union OrganizingLast week, the NLRB released an opinion finding joint employment status under the standard it retooled in the Browning-Ferris Industries (“BFI”) case in 2015. At issue was a petition from the Laborer’s Union to hold an election to form a bargaining unit covering asbestos removal workers. The Union argued that these workers were jointly employed… Continue Reading
By Nelson Cary on Posted in Elections,Union OrganizingThe NLRB’s so-called “ambush” election rule turned one year old last month. To commemorate the birthday, I decided to turn to Susan Connelly, the Executive Director at PTI Labor Research, and prior contributor to this blog, to ask what she is seeing in the election data. Nelson: Looking back at the first year of the… Continue Reading
By Allen Kinzer on Posted in Elections,Union Organizing,UnionsVolkswagen has refused to bargain with the UAW as the representative of 165 skilled maintenance workers at VW’s Chattanooga facility. Consequently, the UAW has filed unfair labor practice charges with the NLRB. VW’s refusal to bargain with the UAW is the only means for VW to challenge the recent election. On December 14, the NLRB… Continue Reading
By Allen Kinzer on Posted in Elections,Union Organizing,UnionsThe UAW won the election to represent 165 skilled maintenance workers at VW’s Chattanooga facility. There were 108 “yes” votes in favor of UAW representation and 44 “no” votes against the UAW. VW appealed the NRLB Regional Director’s decision approving an election for a micro-unit of skilled maintenance workers. Now, VW must decide whether to… Continue Reading
By Nelson Cary on Posted in ElectionsEarlier this year, the NLRB released data on union wins in election petitions filed during FY 2015 (i.e., from October 1, 2014 to September 30, 2015). The results: unions won 66% of all election petitions filed. In representation petition activity, where the union is trying to gain representation rights for the first time, unions won 69%… Continue Reading
By Allen Kinzer on Posted in Elections,Union OrganizingOn December 1, VW announced that it is appealing the NLRB Regional Director’s decision to hold a union election for 165 skilled maintenance workers. While VW’s appeal proceeds, however, the election will still be held on December 3 and 4. During the NLRB election, the 165 maintenance workers will vote on whether they want the… Continue Reading
By Allen Kinzer on Posted in Elections,Union OrganizingOn November 18, 2015, the NLRB’s Atlanta Regional Director approved the UAW’s election petition for a small unit of skilled maintenance workers at VW Chattanooga and ordered a two-day election for December 3 and 4. During October, the UAW had petitioned the NLRB to represent a unit of 165 skilled maintenance workers at the VW plant.… Continue Reading
By Allen Kinzer on Posted in Elections,Union OrganizingOn October 23, the UAW filed an NLRB election petition to represent about 165 skilled maintenance workers at VW’s Chattanooga plant. This petition for a union vote comes 20 months after the UAW lost a union election to represent all of the production and maintenance workers at the VW facility. Following the 2014 election loss,… Continue Reading
By Nelson Cary on Posted in Elections,Union OrganizingThe last several years have seen significant decisions benefiting unions announced around Labor Day. This year was no different. There was the more easily satisfied joint employer test and a decision allowing dues checkoff provisions in a union contract to survive the expiration of that contract. (More on that development coming soon!) Add to these a new guidance memorandum (pdf) from… Continue Reading
By Nelson Cary on Posted in Elections,Rulemaking,Union OrganizingAnother federal court, this one in Washington, D.C., has come down on the side of the NLRB’s new election rule. Deciding a case the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and several other employer organizations filed, and to which one employer was added, the court found that the NLRB did not act “arbitrarily or capriciously” in issuing… Continue Reading
By Nelson Cary and George Stevens on Posted in Courts,Elections,Union OrganizingUpdating our post from yesterday, the Texas business groups who lost their challenge to the NLRB’s “ambush” election rule wasted no time filing a Notice of Appeal (pdf) of that decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. While it is certainly possible that the appeals court could reverse the decision, any… Continue Reading
By Nelson Cary on Posted in Elections,NLRB,Union OrganizingOn the heels of the Texas court’s ruling earlier this week, and with more than a month of experience with the NLRB’s new election rule behind us, I thought it would be interesting to find out what the data actually shows is happening under the new rule. So, yesterday I turned to Susan Connelly of… Continue Reading
By Nelson Cary and George Stevens on Posted in Elections,NLRB,Union OrganizingA federal judge in Texas dealt a serious blow to opponents of the NLRB’s new “ambush” election rule yesterday afternoon, tossing out a lawsuit from business groups challenging the rule. Opponents of the rule have now lost in both court and in Congress. There is only one remaining court case challenging the rule in the… Continue Reading
By Nelson Cary on Posted in Elections,NLRB,Union NegotiationsEarlier this year, the NLRB’s GC, who is responsible for enforcing the NLRA, continued his annual practice of attending the Mid-Winter Meeting of the Practice and Procedure Committee of the ABA Labor and Employment Law Section. The GC answered questions the committee had collected from labor law practitioners around the country. A few weeks ago,… Continue Reading
By Nelson Cary and Greg Scheiderer on Posted in Elections,NLRB,RulemakingEarlier this week, Region 8 of the NLRB held a training session in Cleveland, Ohio, on the upcoming changes to the procedures for representation cases that will go into effect on April 14, 2015. This training session was one of more than 35 sessions the NLRB is hosting for practitioners across the country. Additionally, NLRB… Continue Reading
