Proposed NLRB Union Election Rules Significantly Reduce Employers’ Response Time to Union Organizing
MSK Client Alert
March 6, 2014
Recently, a majority of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB or Board), now at full strength with five members, announced its new proposal for restructuring the existing union election process. The proposed rules’ stated purpose is to remove barriers to the resolution of union representation issues, increase transparency and uniformity across its regional offices, eliminate unnecessary litigation, and modernize the Board’s representation election procedures. If these “new” rules sound familiar, it is because this is the NLRB’s second attempt to accelerate the union election process. The Board proposed nearly identical rules in 2011, but the courts struck them down in 2012 because the Board lacked a quorum when it voted to adopt them.