What a Biden Appointed NLRB Will Do For You
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This is a freaking huge decision by the NLRB:
The U.S. National Labor Relations Board on Friday resurrected key elements of a policy it eliminated more than 50 years ago requiring businesses that commit labor law violations to bargain with unions without holding formal elections.
The board’s 3-1 decision in a case involving building materials company Cemex Construction Materials could provide a major boost to unions by allowing them to represent workers in certain cases when a majority sign cards in support of unionizing, rather than going through the lengthy and often litigious election process.
In Friday’s decision, the Democrat-led board partially revived a doctrine known as Joy Silk, named for a 1949 case in which the NLRB said employers must bargain with unions unless they have a good-faith doubt that majority support exists.
The NLRB abandoned the Joy Silk doctrine in the early 1970s after the U.S. Supreme Court imposed a different standard in the 1969 case NLRB v. Gissel Packing Co. In Gissel, the court said the NLRB could force employers to bargain when they engage in misconduct so severe that any election would be tainted.
Friday’s decision came one day after the NLRB announced a final rule reviving Obama-era regulations designed to speed up the union election process, which is seen as giving an advantage to unions.
NLRB Chair Lauren McFerran said Friday’s decision and the new rule together will strengthen the board’s ability to provide workers with a fair and timely process for seeking union representation.
“The Cemex decision reaffirms that elections are not the only appropriate path for seeking union representation,” McFerran said in a statement.
Now, there’s a lot to work out here. How will this work in reality? What will the legal challenges look like? And of course the moment Republicans take the presidency, this will be reversed. But still, for the first time in a very long time, Democrats are empowering the NLRB to make life better for workers. Carter/Clinton/Obama simply didn’t take these issues seriously. Biden does.