About six months ago, the National Labor Relations Board's new regulations and procedures governing union representation elections went into effect. Before they did, many people predicted that the new rules would significantly increase the number of union elections, drastically shorten the time between the filing of a petition and holding of an election, place significant stress on management trying to comply with the tight deadlines immediately following the filing of the petition, and make it more likely that unions will prevail in representation elections.
So . . . has any of that turned out to be true? So far, both the data and our experiences have taught us that, yes, the dire warnings were well founded. Employers were right to be concerned and those who began preparing for the new Election Rule early were wise to do so. There is more organizing activity, the tight post-petition timelines are very difficult to meet in the absence of significant preparation, and it is harder than ever for employers to prevail in elections — especially if they have not done meaningful groundwork in advance to prepare for the possibility of an election.
In our Lessons from the First 150 Days webinar, Jack Toner and Chuck Walters will discuss the trends revealed in the NLRB's own data as well as some of our Firm's experiences under the new rules. It's not quite Halloween yet, but prepare to be frightened as Chuck and Jack take you on a 20-minute tour of the haunted house employers are now living in under the NLRB's new election rules.
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