Washington, DC (June 1, 2015) – A Texas Court
decision today upholding a controversial labor rule allowing unions to spring
elections on businesses in only a few days tips the scale in favor of organized
labor and cannot stand unchallenged, said the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB).
“We are deeply disappointed by the Texas court
ruling and we plan to appeal the decision,” said Karen Harned, Executive
Director of the NFIB Small Business Legal Center, a plaintiff in the Texas
case.
NFIB and the Texas Associated Builders and
Contractors (ABC) challenged the so-called Ambush Election Rule, approved this
year by the National Labor Relations Board, under which labor organizers can
hold workplace elections after giving the owner as few as 10 days
notification. Currently unions must give
employers at least several weeks to prepare for elections, retain counsel and
talk to employees.
“If this ruling stands, small businesses — which
typically do not have in-house labor counsel — will have very little time to
make preparations for a union election,” said Harned. “It could take 10 days just to find a labor
lawyer and get a meeting. They would
have very little time to educate their employees on how unionization could
affect them, including the impact of union dues on their paychecks.
“The Ambush Election is a very badly disguised
effort on the part of the federal government to rig the outcome of union
elections in favor of organized labor and we don’t believe it’s legal,” said
Harned. NFIB and ABC will appeal the
Texas decision to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
NFIB Texas
Executive Director Will Newton, who represents more than 20,000 small
business owners in the Lone Star State, said his members are extremely
concerned that the Ambush Election Rule puts them at a steep disadvantage.
“What our members want is a fair opportunity to
prepare for the elections and talk to their employees about how they could
affect the business,” said Newton.
“Employees need to hear both sides of the argument in order to make an
informed decision. There’s nothing fair
about a campaign in which one side can organize quietly for months while the
other side only has a few days to respond.
“The NLRB is stacking the deck in favor of labor
unions and we’re not going to let that stand.”
For more information about NFIB please visit www.nfib.com.
