NLRB Releases Proposed Rule on 9(a) Recognition and Other Election Issues
The National Labor Relations Board released a proposed rule to rescind and replace the Trump-era Board’s April 1, 2020, final rule revising election procedures under the NLRA. Specifically, Nov. 3’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking has three parts, each rescinding a corresponding portion of the NLRB’s April 2020 final rule.
First, the proposed rule would return to the Board’s prior approach to voluntary recognition in the construction industry, as reflected in case law. This would include restoring a six-month limitations period for election petitions challenging a construction employer’s voluntary recognition of a union under Section 9(a) of the NLRA, as established in Casale Industries. It would also include the principle established in Staunton Fuel that sufficiently detailed language in a collective bargaining agreement can serve as sufficient evidence that voluntary recognition was based on Section 9(a) of the Act. The current Biden-appointed NLRB majority feels that the 2020 rule injected uncertainty and unpredictability into construction industry labor relations.