Congress Has Spoken, Mr. President: No “Quickie” Union Elections

By Lori Armstrong Halber

In the words of House Education and the Workforce Committee Chairman John Kline, R-MN, “Today, Congress voted to stop an unelected board of bureaucrats from trampling on the rights of America’s workers and job creators.”

The House of Representatives voted Thursday to join the Senate and send a resolution to President Obama blocking the National Labor Relations Board’s Ambush Election Rule, implemented on Dec. 12, 2014 and scheduled to take effect next month, on April 14, 2015.

Changes to policies in place for decades

Euphemistically called a “representation case procedures rule,” the new Ambush Election Rule will result in sweeping changes to policies that have been in place for decades, including significantly shortening the period between the filing of the union petition and election from the current median 38 days to as little as 10 days, and mandating that petitioned employers will be required to turn over a list of employee names, their home addresses, telephone numbers and email addresses.

This will stifle employer free speech, deny employees full disclosure about the decisions union organizers are pressuring them to make thereby crippling worker free choice and jeopardize the privacy of workers and their families.

On March 4, 2015, the Senate voted to undo the rules enabling unions to “ambush” companies with so-called “quickie elections.” In anticipation of that vote, the Obama administration issued a statement that it would veto the legislation if passed.

Noting that “The House and Senate have firmly rejected this radical scheme,” Chairman Kline urged the president to “put away his veto pen, and stand with workers and employers by supporting this important resolution.”

This originally was published on the Fisher & Phillips Government Solutions blog