posted on 12.18.14

On December 12, the NLRB once again finalized its “Ambush Election” Rule, which will effectively shorten the time to 10-14 days in which a union election can be held. On the Board’s website they would have you believe these “improvements” to the election process are “modernizations” and “streamlining” processes, but when you read the fine print it is the same bad idea recycled.  We are still scouring through the text, but in short the rule appears to be the same as the proposed rule from February.

The final rule goes into effect on April 14, 2015 and includes a number of bad ideas including the following:

Requires additional contact information (personal telephone numbers and email addresses) be included in voter lists that the employer gives to the NLRB, which in turn is then given to the union. These voter lists will now be given to the Board prior to any pre-election proceedings.

Permits parties to file election petitions and other documents, like the voter lists electronically.

Eliminates an employer’s right to challenge voter eligibility and other issues prior to the election being held.

Requires the employer to identify all objections regarding the election in its “Statement of Position,” filed prior to the election and does not allow any new objections to be raised after the election is held.

Eliminates the Board’s requirement to review every aspect of any post-election dispute. The Board now will only review disputes when one party has raised an objection prior to the election.

Forces parties to consolidate all election-related appeals to the Board into a single appeals process.

The NAM intends to file a lawsuit here in the DC Circuit in the coming weeks challenging the rule from a number of different aspects.  We will provide more information on the lawsuit once we have gone through the rule’s text.

MTI in partnership with NAM will keep members advised of the progress of this ruling.

Update provided by Joe Trauger, NAM Vice President of Human Resource Policy