Public Hearings on Proposed "Ambush Election" Rules

This morning the NLRB announced that public hearings on the proposed “Ambush Election” rules will be held at the NLRB offices in Washington on April 10 and April 11, 2014. You can access this announcement at http://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USNLRB/bulletins/a7afaa?reqfrom=share.

Ambush Elections and Supervisory Training

In my recent commentary (yesterday) about the announcement by the NLRB last week that they are proposing dramatically shortened time frames for union organizing elections, I mentioned the importance of having an emergency game plan ready to go because of the short time to react to the filing of an organizing petition. I commented that training of supervisors is an excellent idea and that we regularly provide that training. We have already had several questions on exactly what the format is for supervisory training.

Typically, this training on the union organizing issue is done in a group meeting with the client’s front-line supervisors. The following points are covered:

1. Overview of NLRB union organizing procedures.
2.  Dos and Don’ts about what a supervisor can say and can’t say during a union organizing effort.
3. Role-playing on answering typical employee questions.
4. After the role-playing exercise, we like to show a short DVD (13-½ minutes long) showing a supervisor doing a terrific job of answering employee questions.
5.  At the conclusion we make some group decisions on plans going forward. Normally this turns out to be staying alert, “nipping in the bud” any wrong ideas that employees might have about what unions can do for them and, most importantly, an understanding on the part of the supervisors that they should immediately notify top management of any signs of serious union organizing activity. If top management doesn’t know, they can’t react!

All this can be done in a one-hour time frame and Dick Wessels regularly handles this for clients. This is relatively cost-effective at Dick’s hourly rate of $325 an hour, and that is the total bill. There is no charge for preparation time, travel time nor travel expenses. As we indicated in our last e-alert, if you have questions or you want to set up a supervisory training session, contact Dick at 630-377-1554 or via e-mail at riwessels@wesselssherman.com.

Ambush Elections Are Back!

Ambush elections are back! The National Labor Relations Board announced last week in Washington that they are once again proposing dramatically shortened timeframes for union organizing elections. This is a reappearance of pro-union rules which were approved by the NLRB in 2011, but were successfully challenged on the basis that the NLRB did not have the required quorum. The new fast track election period will greatly favor unions. It will also include such things as forcing companies to provide organizers detailed information on employees, including home phone numbers, and a streamlined process undercutting a company's ability to challenge various election issues. But, the most important feature remains the requirement that you could be facing an election on a ten day fast track.

It is expected that public hearings will take place at the NLRB in Washington in April with an expected vote sometime after that. It is a near certainty that the three pro-union members on the NLRB will vote to approve the new rules and they will out vote the two Republican board members. So, it is likely that business will be looking at a strongly pro-union union organizing procedure which is, in our view, properly called "ambush elections."

The practical implications for employers are that they will need to be far more sophisticated in handling campaigns. At a minimum, they should have an emergency game plan ready to go because there will be precious little time to react. Training of supervisors on the issue is an excellent idea and you can contact us if you wish to do that. Another good idea is to have available a ready-made campaign using a video format, again, because you are going to have to act very quickly. The two top companies out there that have solid off-the-shelf material are Labor Relations Institute and Projections, Inc. You can take a look at their material on their websites which are LRI - www.lrionline.com or Projections Inc. - www.projectionsinc.com.

If you want to get ahead of the curve with supervisory training, contact Dick Wessels at 630-377-1554 or via e-mail at riwessels@wesselssherman.com.