Employers waiting for the National Labor Relation Board’s revisions to union election rules will have to wait a bit longer. According to the Board, that item is a “long term” action item.  It has been downgraded from a prior ranking. This is a possible indication that revisions to the rules have become a less important…

Section 102.61(a)(8) of the National Labor Relations Board’s rules requires that a certification petition “shall contain a statement that the employer declines to recognize the petitioner as the representative within the meaning of Section 9(a) of the Act or that the labor organization is currently recognized but desires certification under the Act.” The NLRB’s standard…

Union representation elections are usually done in person at the workplace. When the workforce is scattered or works odd shifts the union and the National Labor Relations Board likes to use mail-in ballots as a way to ensure all voting employees have an equal chance to vote. Oddly, an NLRB Regional Director declined to count…

A nursing home whose employees voted against union representation 64-60 was ordered to start bargaining with the union for a contract, a seldom-used penalty levied against companies that commit egregious unfair labor practice charges during a union organizing campaign. The company allegedly committed two “hallmark” unfair labor practices. First, it granted a raise to workers…

The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) recently crusaded to organize a 90-person adjunct bargaining unit at a college in California. The College’s “Foundations Coordinator” – an obvious supervisor – openly campaigned in favor of the union. Typically, supervisory pro-union involvement taints an election because of the possibility that employees will feel coerced into voting for…

A nursing home informed geriatric nursing assistants that they would receive wage increases via letters that were sent one day before the union filed its petition for an election. The employees voted 28-33 against union representation – a company victory that would be short-lived. Though the letters were sent before the election petition was filed,…