Thursday, July 11, 2019

NLRB Makes It Easier For Employers To Drop Unions: The National Labor Relations Board last week issued a ruling, 3-1, that lowered the legal hurdles an employer must pass through to rid their business of a labor union. The ruling in Johnson Controls, Inc. now places the onus on unions to prove that they still maintain majority support through a ballot election if an employer submits an "anticipatory" withdrawal of recognition indicating the employer possesses evidence that a majority of employees in the bargaining unit no longer supports union representation. A business may now stop bargaining up to 90 days before the expiration of a union contract so long as it notifies the union that it plans to withdrawal recognition. Under prior precedent, the board said if a union challenged the withdrawal, an employer would be in violation of the National Labor Relations Act if it failed "to establish that the union lacked majority status at the time recognition was actually withdrawn." Under the new ruling, a union must file an election petition within 45 days of the employer's "anticipatory" withdrawal notice. Read the decision. [Politico]