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In this episode of the Labor Law Insider podcast, our host, Tom Godar, is joined by Husch Blackwell attorneys Adam Doerr and Trecia Moore to discuss union decertification. 

  • In 2022 there were approximately 1,700 petitions for election filed before the NLRB, and about 300 of these were filed by employees to decertify their bargaining unit representative.
  • Over 300 Starbucks elections have resulted in union representation and at least 16 petitions for decertification have been filed.
  • Employees continue to seek the end of union representation for a variety of reasons through the decertification process, including those experiencing changes in their bargaining unit or a change in those managing bargaining unit employees. Our Labor Law Insiders also discuss why some employers are quite content to remain in a bargaining relationship with the union. 

Listen to the full episode here: https://the-labor-law-insider.simplecast.com/episodes/decertification-of-union-bargaining-unit-whats-happening-today.

Under a typical election scenario, a union files an election petition with the Board’s Regional Office, along with a “showing of interest” demonstrating enough employee support (at least 30% of the unit described in the petition) to justify an election. The union also serves the petition on the employer, along with a description of Board procedures, informing parties of their rights and obligations in the process, and a “statement of position” form.

Continue Reading Employers Have New Obligations when the Union Demands Voluntary Recognition

On August 2, 2023, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or “Board”) issued its anticipated ruling in Stericycle, Inc., reversing the Trump-era Boeing decision that famously implemented a three-category test for balancing whether workplace rules unlawfully interfered with employees’ rights to engage in “protected concerted activity” under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA” or the “Act”).

Continue Reading National Labor Relations Board Overrules <em>Boeing</em> With Strict Scrutiny of Handbook Rules

On May 1, 2023, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) issued its decision in Lion Elastomers and United Steelworkers, making it more difficult for employers to discipline employees for outbursts and similar misconduct while employees are engaged in protected concerted activity under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (the “Act”).

Continue Reading NLRB Provides Employees Extra Leeway to Use Offensive Language

As time has passed, nurses throughout the country have been pushing for legislation similar to what was passed in California, mandating minimum staffing requirements.

Continue Reading Healthcare Minimum Staffing Levels Pursuant To State And Federal Guidelines On The Horizon

It is not often that the National Labor Relations Board (the “Board”) gives employers a heads-up before it makes broad, and often burdensome, changes, but a recently issued ALJ decision might be the exception to the rule. Earlier this year, an Administrative Law Judge issued a decision in Saint Leo University, Inc., 12-CA-275612 (2023) reinforcing how the National Labor Relations Act (the “Act”) is applied to religious educational institutions, however, the briefing in the case indicated how that application might change in the near future.

Continue Reading NLRB May Soon Expand Jurisdiction Over Educational Institutions with Religious Affiliations

Jennifer Abruzzo, the General Counsel for the National Labor Relations Board issued a new memo, 23-02, over her concerns that electronic surveillance by employers is impairing employees’ ability to engage in protected concerted activity and keeping that activity confidential from their employer. GC Abruzzo refers to case law that is, for the most part, dated and well-known in terms of the “do’s and don’ts” of improper employer surveillance in the workplace.

Read the full post on Husch Blackwell’s Labor and Employment Law Insights blog to find out our take on GC Abruzzo’s new focus.

According to a recent Gallup poll, 71 percent of Americans “approve of labor unions,” up three percentage points from 2021.

This represents a generational high-water mark for union support – the last time Gallup measured a higher union approval rating among the American public was 1959 when 73 Americans approved of labor unions. Prior to this year, union support had remained lower than 70% ever since union support dropped to 66 percent in 1967. The low-water mark was reached in 2009 when unions enjoyed only 48% support from the American public.

Continue Reading Union Support Reaches Generational High-Water Mark as Union Election Petitions Surge

On August 29, 2022, the NLRB issued its decision in Tesla, Inc., overruling precedent that allowed employers to enforce facially-neutral dress codes to prohibit wearing non-conforming attire, including union insignia and union logos. Now, employers must allow employees to wear union attire absent a showing of “special circumstances.”

Continue Reading NLRB Mandates National Dress Code

It has become increasingly apparent that the Biden Administration’s National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is aggressively pushing labor-friendly positions, like those seen under the Obama Administration.

Now it appears the NLRB’s General Counsel has taken aim at Section 8(c) of the National Labor Relations Act (the Act), and in so doing undermines 75 years of jurisprudence as “incorrectly concluded.”

On April 7, 2022, the NLRB announced the General Counsel’s desire to restrict employers’ ability to speak to their employees about unions, whether in so-called “captive audience” meetings, or whether “cornered by management while performing their job duties.” The General Counsel claims such meetings and conversations “inherently involve an unlawful threat that employees will be disciplined or suffer other reprisals if they exercise their protected right not to listen to such speech.”

Continue Reading NLRB Seeks to Reduce Company Speech About Unions