Source: Lisa M. Keefe, MEATINGPLACE, 9/3/15


A National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) rule intended to streamline the process by which union organizers can file and arrange for elections in a given workplace have reduced the overall time spent on the election process by about 40 percent, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal.

The new “representation case rules” went into effect in mid-April. The Journal, crunching data provide by the NLRB, calculated that the election process has fallen to about three weeks on average, compared with about five weeks or more in fiscal 2014.

The rule allows election petitions and other documents to be filed electronically instead of by mail, and requires employers to give unions a list of employees’ personal email addresses on file — a change employers say violates workers’ privacy rights, the Journal pointed out.

Employers were concerned that the effort to streamline the process would significantly reduce the amount of time they have to make their case against union representation. In January, three business associations filed a lawsuit in Texas to have the rule set aside, claiming that the NLRB exceeded its authority.

Shorter election periods benefit organizers, unions believe, because they give employers less time to “unlawfully intimidate” employees into declining union representation, the Journal said. Since April, a steady supply of labor groups and employees have petitioned the NLRB to hold elections.

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