On December 13, 2019, the Trump administration\u2019s National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)\u2014the federal agency charged with enforcing labor law and overseeing union certification elections\u2014escalated its assault against workers\u2019 rights by abruptly changing the rules of union elections, without notice or public comment. According to a December 21, 2019, article by William Lewis in Truthout,<\/i> \u201cStarting in six months, when workers petition for an election, they must wait at least 14 business days until a pre-election hearing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The NLRB was created by the Wagner Act of 1935 and is charged with protecting workers\u2019 rights to unionize and collectively bargain with employers. It consists of up to five politically appointed board members. At the moment, there are only three members of the board<\/a>\u2014all pro-business Republican lawyers.<\/p>\n Under the new NLRB rules, not only must workers who have asked for a certification election wait fourteen days for a hearing, but the board also has the power to postpone pre-election hearings any time they find \u201cgood cause.\u201d After a two-week waiting period for a hearing, the scope of the bargaining unit and the eligibility of individual employees to vote in a certification election is subject to litigation. These changes put unions at a major disadvantage, since employers now have more time to inundate workers with anti-union propaganda in the lead-up to an election.<\/p>\n As Lewis noted, if a union looks like it might manage to win a certification vote, \u201cthe unelected NLRB now has the ability to suspend the election to resolve any ongoing disputes over the bargaining unit.\u201d Moreover, recent changes to NLRB rules make it easier to decertify legally recognized collective bargaining units.<\/p>\n Though these NLRB rule changes erect yet more \u201clegal hurdles\u201d to workers seeking to form a union, Lewis wrote that businesses seeking to prevent their workers from unionizing \u201ccan also simply break the law.\u201d He cited a 2019 Economic Policy Institute study<\/a> that found\u00a0more than 40 percent of employers\u00a0in union certification elections resort to \u201cunfair labor practices aimed at undermining electoral procedures and retaliating against pro-union workers.\u201d<\/p>\n There has been no corporate news coverage of the changes to the NLRB regulations governing union elections. Aside from articles in independent media outlets Truthout and Common Dreams,\u00a0the only coverage of the NLRB\u2019s rule changes has come from two legal news sites,\u00a0Bloomberg Law\u00a0<\/a>and\u00a0the National Law Review<\/a>, that reported in detail on the NLRB\u2019s actions and included additional information about how the new rules overturn Obama-era regulations designed to streamline union election procedures.<\/p>\n Jessica Corbett, \u201cProgressives Blast New NLRB Union Elections Rule That \u2018Betrays the Workers It is Meant to Protect,\u2019\u201d Common Dreams, December 13, 2019, https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/2019\/12\/13\/progressives-blast-new-nlrb-union-elections-rule-betrays-workers-it-meant-protect<\/a>.<\/p>\n William Lewis, \u201cTrump Labor Board Escalates War on Workers\u2019 Rights,\u201d Truthout, December 21, 2019,\u00a0https:\/\/truthout.org\/articles\/trump-labor-board-escalates-war-on-workers-rights\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n Lynn Rhinehart, \u201cUnder Trump the NLRB Has Gone Completely Rogue,\u201d The Nation<\/i>, April 7, 2020, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/article\/politics\/nlrb-workers-rights-trump\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n Student Researcher:\u00a0<\/b>Cem Ismail Addemir (North Central College)<\/p>\n Faculty Evaluator:<\/b>\u00a0Steve Macek (North Central College)<\/p>\n The post #18. Trump Labor Board Assaults Workers\u2019 Rights<\/a> appeared first on Project Censored<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n
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