Employees want to join a union? What you should know about new NLRB ruling

Now more than ever, businesses should be prepared to understand and handle union contracts.

The reason? A new ruling from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) just paved the way for employees to unionize without an election.

According to the NLRB’s decision in Cemex Construction Materials Pacific, LLC, when a union requests recognition based on the fact that a majority of employees in an appropriate bargaining unit have designated the union as their representative, an employer has two choices.

The choices are:

• recognizing and bargaining with the union, or
• filing a petition with the NLRB to get an election.

The ruling puts additional pressure on employers. Specifically, the petition can be dismissed without the opportunity for an election, if the employer commits unfair labor practices.

In fact, the NLRB will order the employer to recognize and bargain with the union.

In the Cemex case, the employer engaged in more than 20 instances of objectionable or unlawful misconduct during the period between when the election petition was filed and when the election was held.

Therefore, the building materials company must bargain with the union, the NLRB ruled on August 25, 2023.

Previous union cases

Here’s a look at where we’ve been in the years leading up to Cemex:

A 1949 NLRB case, Joy Silk Mills Inc., required employers to bargain with a union unless they had a good-faith doubt of the union’s majority status.

Things shifted in 1969 with NLRB v. Gissel Packing Co. In that U.S. Supreme Court decision, the employer said the authorization cards the union had obtained from a majority of employees were “inherently unreliable.” But because the employer had committed unfair labor practices, a fair election was unlikely. Therefore, the employer had to bargain with the union, the court said.