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Organized Labor Gets Their Men

By Brian Harris

By Eric B Meyer,

Special to The Legal

 

Organized labor is jumping for joy.

 

President Obama announced recently that he would recess appoint Craig Becker and Mark Pearce to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

 

Becker and Pearce will fill two of the three vacancies on the NLRB, bringing the total number of Board members to four. Of the four NLRB members, three are considered pro-labor (read: friends of organized labor).

 

Pearce has been a labor lawyer for his entire career, representing unions in Buffalo, NY. Business interests did not exactly ?endorse? Pearce, as a NLRB nominee. ?Tolerate? is a better word. Many expected that the Senate would approve the nominations of both Pearce and Brian Hayes, a staffer for Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY). The practical effect would be that one would cancel out the other.

 

Although the business community may have tolerated Pearce, there aren?t enough four-letter words to describe its feelings for Becker.

 

Quite likely, the feeling is mutual.

 

Becker is the associate general counsel for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). And he is no friend to employers. The Wall Street Journal labeled Becker as an advocate for a new "body of campaign rules" that would limit drastically the ability of employers to argue against unionization.

 

With Becker and Pearce on the NLRB, employers can expect change.

 

So do you know any good labor attorneys?

 

This is the question I raised over the weekend on Twitter when I informed my readers of the recess appointments.

 

In a recent blog post, I wrote that the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), a measure that would effectively eliminate secret ballot elections for employees and make it easier for unions to organize businesses, might never make into law during this Congressional session. I stand by that prediction.

 

However, even without EFCA, employers are going to be in for a rude awakening with Pearce and Becker on the NLRB. Even absent legislative approval, expect the following changes in the workplace:

 

1. A HUGE spike in union elections. Unions have waited to ramp up organizing campaigns until EFCA became law under the Obama Administration. It hasn?t happened. However, now that the next best thing has happened for organized labor, expect to see a large increase in union organizing efforts over the next several months.

 

2.   Shorter election times. Currently, elections take about six to seven weeks from the time the NLRB processes a petition for election. That time should drop by at least half, if not more. In fact, we may not be speaking about election times anymore in terms of weeks, but rather in days.

3.   Drastic restrictions on employer speech. Becker has argued that employers should be banned from holding mandatory meetings ? where all employees are paid for their time ? to offer the company?s views on unionization and the damaging effect it could have on employment.

4.   Big increases in union speech. Becker believes that if an employer distributes printed materials to employees on company property, then the employer must allow access to the union to hand out pro-union materials on company property.

5.   A one-sided election process. Becker once wrote in a law review article that employers should not be allowed to attend NLRB hearings about union elections. He also believes that employers should not have the right to challenge election results, even with evidence of union misconduct. Becker also believes that union elections should be removed from work sites ? where employees vote currently ? and moved to ?neutral grounds? or conducted via absentee mail ballot. Further, Becker would prohibit employers from having observers at the polls to challenge ballots. With a 3-1 majority on the NLRB, Becker?s views may become governing law.

And these are just some of the pre-election changes. Expect an overhaul of the collective bargaining process and the enforcement of unfair labor practices.

 

Bottom line: If your business is not prepared to address unionization, you?d better get started?FAST!

 

Eric B. Meyer is a member of the Labor and Employment Group at Dilworth Paxson LLP. Readers can contact Mr. Meyer via e-mail and follow him on Twitter.

[This posting is for informational purposes and should not be construed or interpreted as either legal advice on any matter or as in any way creating an attorney/client relationship]

 

 

  

Full post as published by The Legal Intelligencer Blog on March 30, 2010 (boomark / email).