shutterstock_110397776_smallAs we previously reported, on April 15, 2015, the National Labor Relations Board implemented new union election rules (Election Rules) that made sweeping changes to the Board’s proceedings for processing election petitions, holding hearings, and conducting secret-ballot elections. At the time the Election Rules took effect, legal challenges to the Election Rules were pending in the United States District Courts for the District of Columbia and the Western District of Texas.

On June 1, 2015, the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas  issued its decision in Associated Builders & Contractors of Tex., Inc. v. NLRB, Case No. 1:15-cv-0026 (W.D. Tex.), rejecting all of the building associations’ challenges to the Election Rules. While another case—Chamber of Commerce et al. v. NLRB, No. 15-cv-00009 (D.D.C. filed January 5, 2015—is still pending, given this ruling in favor of the NLRB upholding the new Election Rules, the court’s decision in Associated Builders & Contractors of Texas is likely to lead to an increase in organizing activity in the coming months, as unions that were awaiting resolution of the legal challenges to the Election Rules resume or step up their organizing efforts. Since the Election Rules took effect, the median time from petition to election has been reduced to 23 days, and the number of petitions filed in the month after the Election Rules went into effect increased by 32 percent. We will continue to monitor this issue and report on it as it develops.

Proactive employers, it is important to prepare for the impact that the new Election Rules will have on your organization.

Greenberg Traurig’s Labor & Employment team offers training to help organizations recognize the early warning signs of union organizing, teach managers how to lawfully respond to union activity, and help prepare to respond to a union campaign under the new rules. See details about our Union Awareness Workshop. Contact Todd Wozniak or Justin Keith, or your Greenberg Traurig attorney, to schedule a workshop for your executives and/or managers.

Tags: Greenberg Traurig, gtlaw, gt_law, National Labor Relations Board, NLRB, union election rules
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Photo of Justin F. Keith Justin F. Keith

Justin helps unionized businesses maintain successful labor relations and helps non-union companies maintain direct relationships with their employees through education, training, and proactive union awareness. His labor practice encompasses all aspects of labor relations, including unfair labor practices, representation proceedings before the National

…

Justin helps unionized businesses maintain successful labor relations and helps non-union companies maintain direct relationships with their employees through education, training, and proactive union awareness. His labor practice encompasses all aspects of labor relations, including unfair labor practices, representation proceedings before the National Labor Relations Board and Courts of Appeal, contract negotiations, strikes and lockouts, grievances, and arbitrations. Justin also represents employers in all areas of employment law—including reductions in force, litigation of discrimination, harassment, whistleblower, and retaliation claims, and numerous other personnel and workplace issues—before state and federal agencies and in courts throughout the country.

Justin Co-Chairs the firm’s Labor & Employment Practice’s Labor-Management Relations group and advises clients in all areas of traditional labor law, including union organizing campaigns, collective bargaining negotiations, unfair labor practice charges and representation case proceedings before the NLRB, union awareness strategy and training, strike response and contingency planning, grievance arbitration proceedings, and appellate litigation before the NLRB and the Courts of Appeals. Justin was co-counsel to New Process Steel in the landmark Supreme Court case, New Process Steel v. NLRB, 560 U.S. 674 (2010). He is also a contributing editor of The Developing Labor Law, the leading treatise on U.S. labor law, and a frequent speaker to legal and industry groups on labor and employment issues.

Justin has litigated dozens of wage and hour class actions brought under the Massachusetts Wage Act and nationwide collective actions under the Fair Labor Standards Act. He represents employers across a broad spectrum of industries, including retail, transportation, delivery services, and telecom services in nationwide class and collective actions brought throughout the country.

Justin regularly provides counsel to senior management and human resource personnel on employment law compliance matters, such as reductions in force, leaves of absence, exempt status classification under the FLSA and state law, employee discipline, sexual

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