AFIMAC News Bulletin – Covering Strike Security, Work Stoppages, and Labor Disputes

The National Labor Relations Board announced today that it has adopted a final rule amending its election case procedures to shorten the time between the filing of a petition and the conduct of an election. The rule will be published in the Federal Register on Thursday, December 22, and is due to take effect on April 30, 2012.

The Board asserts that under the new rule:

…regional hearings will be expressly limited to issues relevant to the question of whether an election should be conducted. The hearing officer will have the authority to limit testimony to relevant issues, and to decide whether or not to accept post-hearing briefs.

Also, all appeals of regional director decisions to the Board will be consolidated into a single post-election request for review. Parties can currently appeal regional director decisions to the Board at multiple stages in the process.

In addition, the rule makes all Board review of Regional Directors’ decisions discretionary, leaving more final decisions in the hands of career civil servants with long experience supervising elections.

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Labor union leaders say that Verizon Communications Inc. has fired 40 employees involved in a contentious two-week labor strike over the summer for alleged actions that range from threats of violence to harassment and intimidation.

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The National Labor Relations Board (“Board”) held a hearing about Chairman Mark Gaston Pearce’s proposed Resolution adopting an amended version of the pending “Quickie Election” Rule on November 30th.  By a 2-1 margin (with Republican Member Brian Hayes voting against the Resolution), the Board approved the Chairman’s proposed Resolution in its entirety.

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