Posts tagged Cemex decision
Teamsters Test the Bounds of the NLRB’s Cemex Decision, Seeking to Unionize Amazon Workers Without an Election
November 13, 2024 // Teamsters allege that Amazon’s failure to voluntarily recognize the union or timely file an RM Petition warrants the issuance of a bargaining order requiring Amazon to bargain with the union. Although the procedure employed by Teamsters permits the union to bypass procedural steps in order to quickly gain recognition and begin bargaining, Amazon’s willingness to litigate in order to prevent the organization of its facilities makes it unlikely that Teamsters will be at the bargaining table anytime soon.
Get Ready for NLRB Rule Making It Harder to Decertify Unions: 5 Key Steps for Employers
September 27, 2024 // The Board’s final amendment reinstates its 2001 decision in Staunton Fuel, establishing a low threshold for demonstrating majority union employee support in the construction industry. Under Staunton Fuel, a union can become a duly authorized representative under section 9(a) of the NLRA based solely on collective bargaining language – that the impacted employees may never see – negotiated under Section 8(f) (often referred to as a “pre-hire agreement”). Under section 8(f), construction industry employers may choose to become “union” without any showing of employee support. By readopting this standard, the Board concludes that the mere presence of language suggesting that the union obtained recognition in the 8(f) agreement is enough to confer majority status under Section 9(a).
OPINION A regulatory change promises to make the unionization of restaurants even easier
May 31, 2024 // And if that employer shows even mild resistance during that process to the staff being organized, a judge can declare the union has won the right to represent the employees, with no vote needed. In that instance, it’s not even necessary for a majority of the employees to favor unionizing. Working Lunch co-hosts Joe Kefauver and Franklin Coley explain how that radical change in the organizing process is already being used by unions to organize single-unit restaurant operations.
Commentary: Biden pursues organized labor’s agenda through regulation
March 14, 2024 // The OSHA “walkaround” rule flies in the face of a regulation that stipulates that people who accompany an OSHA inspector must be employed by the company under inspection. Under the proposed rule, OSHA representatives would have to simply state that a union official was “reasonably necessary” to the inspection to bring that individual to the site. The walk-around rule presents an opportunity for union organizers to collect information or otherwise infiltrate nonunion workplaces, a clear attempt by OSHA to give unions a leg up in organizing drives. Another example is the Securities and Exchange Commission’s universal proxy rule, which forces companies to include management and dissident shareholder nominees on a single proxy card in contested elections. The rule enabled a coalition of our nation’s largest and most militant unions to extract new concessions from Starbucks by threatening to mount a hostile takeover attempt of the coffee company’s board. Unions will continue to exploit the universal proxy rule to bring other publicly traded companies to the table with threats of a hostile takeover.
Commentary: The Georgia Model for Putting Workers’ Rights ahead of Union Demands
March 8, 2024 // The United Auto Workers’ endorsement of Joe Biden’s reelection was in large part payback for the president’s efforts to help organize southern automakers. The Biden administration has issued a slew of policies that will enable the UAW to make inroads at factories that have repeatedly rejected union representation. Most notably and recently, in its Cemex decision last August, the National Labor Relations Board made it easier for unions to ignore workplace elections while publicly intimidating workers into supporting unionization. Georgia is going in the opposite direction, putting workers’ rights ahead of union demands. It’s on the verge of enacting a law that would guarantee secret-ballot elections at automakers and parts manufacturers. The Peach State’s pending reform should spread nationwide.
Tennessee AT&T Workers Force Unwanted CWA Union Bosses Out of Workplace Following Union ‘Card Check’
March 6, 2024 // Last month, an NLRB Regional Director rejected union officials’ objections to the petition and ruled that a decertification election should go forward. However, before the vote could occur, CWA union officials filed paperwork disclaiming interest in continuing their control over the workers – likely to avoid an embarrassing rejection by employees at the ballot box. Had Hodzic and his coworkers’ effort not succeeded, NLRB documents indicate that they would have been integrated into a nationwide bargaining unit comprised of thousands of employees, which would have made decertifying the union virtually impossible.