Posts tagged Election Protection Rule
Seattle Mariners Retail Employees Vote Out UFCW Union, Defeat Union Boss Attempt to Block Election Using “Card Check”
July 27, 2023 // Over the objection of UFCW union officials, the NLRB Regional Director in May ordered a union decertification election at the request of the Seattle Mariners’ retail employees. Union bosses subsequently filed a Request for Review at the NLRB in Washington, D.C., seeking to halt the election. They argued that a so-called “voluntary recognition bar” should be imposed to block the Mariners’ employees from exercising their right to vote on the union’s removal. However, the NLRB denied the union’s Request for Review on July 25. After NLRB Region 19 certifies the 50-9 vote result, the Seattle Mariners’ retail employees will finally be free from the unwanted UFCW union. The retail workers were able to challenge union officials’ card check drive thanks to the Election Protection Rule (EPR), a reform to the election rules enacted by the NLRB in 2020 following Foundation advocacy. While union officials pre-EPR were able to manipulate the so-called “voluntary recognition bar” to block employees from voting out a union for at least a year after an employer recognized a union’s supposed card check victory, the EPR granted employees a 45-day window in which to petition for a secret ballot election to challenge the card check result.
Majority of Mankato Mayo Clinic Support Employees Vote to Remove AFSCME Union Officials
June 20, 2023 // A majority of nursing support staff, clerical staff, and environmental staff at Mankato Mayo Clinic have voted to remove American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 1856 union officials from power at the hospital. The effort was spearheaded by Mankato Mayo employee Melody Morris, who submitted a petition on May 9 asking the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to hold a union “decertification vote” at the facility. This petition was also supported by the majority of her coworkers. Morris and her colleagues’ successful union decertification vote comes as a growing number of Minnesota healthcare employees attempt to exercise their right to vote out unwanted union officials. In addition to Mankato Mayo Clinic nurses, nurses from Mayo’s St. James, MN, branch removed the AFSCME Council 65 union from their hospital last August with Foundation aid. Employees from four Cuyuna Regional Medical Center locations across the Brainerd Lakes region of Minnesota also sought Foundation aid in their decertification effort against Service Employees International Union (SEIU) officials last year. Even amid these efforts, Minnesota union officials seem unwilling to examine why growing numbers of workers want them ousted. A Minnesota Reformer profile on MNA President Mary Turner reported that Turner believes “it’s the nurses in Mankato, not the union, who need to change their approach.”
Grand Rapids TerryBerry Workers Vote to Remove Unwanted Machinists Union from Workplace
May 16, 2023 // Mary Soltysiak and her coworkers at TerryBerry Company filed for a decertification vote on April 14, 2023, with free legal aid from National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation staff attorneys. Her decertification petition contained signatures of a majority of the employees in the unit. Soltysiak has been under the protections of the Michigan Right to Work law since 2018. Under federal labor law, workers can trigger such a decertification vote with the support of 30% of workers in a unionized workplace. The NLRB should then promptly schedule a secret ballot election to determine whether a majority of workers want to end union officials’ power to impose a contract, including forced dues, on workers. The NLRB scheduled a vote for May 15, 2023. On May 15, TerryBerry employees made their position on the union clear, voting to remove the union from their workplace. Barring any objections by union officials that seek to overturn the vote, the workers will be officially free of the union in one week.
Alaskan Factory Workers Overwhelmingly Vote to Remove Unwanted Union Monopoly ‘Representation’
May 4, 2023 // Scot Breuer filed a decertification petition with the NLRB on March 31, 2023, which was supported by a significant number of his coworkers. Under federal labor law, workers can trigger a decertification vote with the support of 30% or more of workers in a unionized workplace. The NLRB should then promptly schedule a secret ballot election to determine whether a majority of workers want to end union officials’ power to impose a contract, including forced dues, on workers. On April 12, 2023, the NLRB issued an election notice to all parties involved that stipulated an election date for May 2. During the election on May 2, Spenard Building Supply employees made their position on the union clear when over two-thirds of the workers voted to remove the union from their workplace, with the official tally of 17-6.
With Right to Work Repeal Coming, Michigan Workers Seek a Vote to End Union ‘Representation’ They Oppose
April 26, 2023 // TerryBerry Company employee Mary Soltysiak filed a petition for dozens of her coworkers with the National Labor Relations Board Region 7 (NLRB) seeking a vote to remove the International Association of Machinist of Aerospace Engineers (IAM) District Lodge 60/Local Lodge 475 union officials’ forced representation powers. This workers’ decertification petition comes in the wake of Michigan legislators ramming through a bill to repeal their state’s decade-old and highly popular Right to Work law. When the repeal law takes effect, union officials will once again have the power to force workers to pay up or be fired in workplaces where the union has forced “representation” powers. Mary Soltysiak and her coworkers at TerryBerry Company filed for a decertification vote on April 14, 2023, with free legal aid from National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation staff attorneys. Previously, she had been under the protections of the Michigan Right to Work law since 2018. Her decertification petition contained signatures of a majority of the employees in the unit. Under federal labor law, workers can trigger such a decertification vote with the support of 30% of workers in a unionized workplace.
Seneca Foods Employees Send Teamsters Union Officials Packing
April 3, 2023 // Seneca Foods employees in Oakfield, Wisconsin, have overwhelmingly voted to free themselves from the unwanted so-called “representation” of Teamsters Local 695. Andrew Collien, a warehouse employee at Seneca Foods, kick-started the decertification process that led to the workers’ vote to remove the union. Collien received free legal aid from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation. Collien and his coworkers filed the petition for a decertification vote with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in late February. In the petition, Seneca Foods workers formally requested a vote to determine whether or not the union should be removed. On March 30, the NLRB regional office conducted a secret ballot election at the plant, resulting in a 17-10 vote to remove the union. Union officials have seven days to file objections to seek to overturn the workers’ vote. Otherwise, the results will become final.
Claiming ‘democracy under attack,’ Biden administration looks to make it harder to oust unions
November 7, 2022 // National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) announced it would start the process rescind a 2020 rule implemented to protect workers' right to vote on removing union representation. The NLRB adopted the Election Protection Rule in 2020 to reform several processes, including union officials filing "blocking charges" to prevent employees from voting out union representation from their workplace. Filing blocking charges by making one or multiple allegations against an employer prevents employees from voting, or their ballots are impounded because litigation ensues over the charges. This process often takes months or years to resolve, during which union representation and dues deductions continue.
National Right to Work Foundation Slams Biden National Labor Relations Board’s Move to Reverse ‘Election Protection Rule’
November 4, 2022 // he National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) today announced it was initiating rulemaking to rescind the Board’s Election Protection Rule, a 2020 provision that, among other things, helped protect rank-and-file workers’ statutory right to hold votes to remove unwanted union officials.