The National Labor Relations Board ("NLRB") has announced that on November 30 it will conduct a public meeting at which it will vote whether to issue final rules regarding certain provisions of the so called "quickie election" procedures the NLRB proposed on June 22 of this year. (Click here to read the announcement.) So far there are no indications as to the specifics of the final rules, although it seems likely that they will provide for significantly faster processing of union-filed petitions for elections, and will require that employers not only provide a petitioning union with more detailed contact information regarding employees in the proposed unit, but also provide that information much earlier in the process.
In a highly critical and unusual response, Member Brian Hayes, the lone Republican on the NLRB, wrote a letter to Congressman John Kline, Chairman of the Committee on Education and the Workforce, which has oversight responsibilities over the NLRB. Member Hayes asserted, among other things, that the majority (Chairman Mark Pearce and Member Craig Becker) was improperly attempting to ramrod the rule to final issuance prior to the expiration of Member Becker's recess appointment later this year, without regard to established NLRB practices and without affording Member Hayes "the requisite opportunity to review and draft a dissent to the rule." The NLRB's longstanding procedural traditions and internal operating rules cannot, said Member Hayes, "simply be cast aside in pursuit of a singular agenda without doing irreparable harm to the Board's legitimacy."
The results of the November 30 meeting should be of significant interest to all employers.
