United States: National Labor Relations Board under heavy Republican fire

Undo what the NLRB has done.  Anticipating its coming paralysis (see our dispatch No.  110509), the NLRB has been multiplying strong actions and rulings facilitation unionization.  But this was without considering the Republicans’ actions to block these decisions.  Indeed, after passing, on September 15th, an Act preventing the NLRB from stopping the establishment of a company suspected of antiunionism (see our dispatch No.  110481), the House of Representatives is currently looking into the “The Workforce Democracy and Fairness Act” (HR 3094), already approved by the Education and the Workforce Committee.  The Act aims to destroy a NLRB proposal to reduce the delay between the moment employees request a vote on the establishment of a union and the organization of the vote (see our dispatch No.  110428).  The bill provides that the vote cannot be held under 35 days after the union’s request, not 21 as the NLRB requested (currently, the limit is 45 days and the average is 38 days).  It also counters the NLRB’s recent Speciality Healthcare jurisprudence which acknowledged the possibility of having small bargaining units in businesses.  This decision is pro-union since it is always easier to win an election with a small working community.  From then on, the bill adds clear criteria to identify a bargaining unit and, in doing so, supervises the NLRB’s appreciation power.  “Under our bill, employers have the time they need to prepare for a union election and communicate with their employees. And workers are provided the resources necessary to make a fully informed decision about union representation” declared the Chairman of the Education and the Workforce Committee.