We are now over 90 days into the era of the Quickie Election. The number of petitions filed during the first three months indicates unions have been energized by the change in the NLRB’s representation case procedure.
In the first 90 days, there were 637 representation petitions filed (and 88 decertification petitions); 311 representation elections were conducted (and 17 decertification elections); and there are currently 196 petitions pending. Unions are winning 60% of the closed cases. The average number of days from petition to election is 26. This is a decrease of about 38% from the pre-Quickie Election era. While this is more time than was anticipated, conversations with NLRB regional office employees paint a picture of confusion in the first few weeks following April 14, and it appears that the length of time in the latter weeks is beginning to come down. The shortest period of time for an election being conducted is 10 days; the longest is 54. The vast majority of elections have been conducted between 20 and 25 days. We expect the time between petition and election to continue to shrink as the NLRB is able to develop more experience.
The most active unions before the change are still the most active. Teamsters led the way with 138 petitions; they were followed by SEIU with 62. The next three most active are IUOE, IAM, and IBEW.
Employers can win even in the shortest of time periods. In our most recent case involving the UFCW, under the most adverse circumstances, the client was able to convince 70% of the employees to vote against the union. Our campaign covered 17 days. The client, against our recommendation, did not use some of the more aggressive and negative ammunition against the union, nor would top executives even ask employees to vote NO. The employer was successful, because we provided them with a full information campaign pointing out the negatives of union representation and the difficulty of collective bargaining. We were able to do this, because we have prepared communication templates on the most active unions, which only need to be updated as changes in their financial records, unfair labor practice charges filed by members, strike history, and corruption files occur.
This successful campaign was against all odds. Clearly, an employer’s odds of victory improve with the more time between when a campaign begins and when the election is held.
Employers or their labor counsel are invited to contact us before the union strikes. We can assist in preparing campaign templates in advance of active organizing.
Please contact me for more information.
Best regards,
William R. Adams, Ph.D.
President & CEO
Adams, Nash, Haskell & Sheridan
1-800-237-3942
wadams@anh.wpengine.com