In what could foreshadow a radical change in federal labor law, the National Labor
Relations Board announced June 7 it will review the legality of “card-check” rules that are used in union organizing drives.

While the results of overall U.S. union organizing efforts have been fairly weak, unions have had some success using card-check methods to organize companies or bargaining groups instead of initiating more drawn-out NLRB election processes. But card-checks apparently work too well for unions, and their use has drawn the attention of the President Bush-backed NLRB which sets and interprets labor standards.

Along party lines, with the majority Republicans winning, the NLRB voted 3-2 to review federal rules which currently allow companies to recognize a union simply if a majority of workers sign cards supporting the union.

“Although no party here challenges the legality of voluntary recognition,” the NLRB majority opinion said, “the fact remains that the secret ballot election remains the best method for determining whether employees desire union representation.”

Disallowing card-checks would be a major blow to union organizing efforts, especially in the UAW. Card-check elections are not very prevalent in the building trades. Critics of the card check system say that a secret ballot election is preferable to card checks, because those elections take away the potential for coercing workers to vote for the union.

Organized labor maintains that employers are able to use the drawn-out NLRB election process to delay, and thus deny, union organizing drives. Labor maintains that employers are able to use that time to coerce and threaten workers who may be interested in joining a union.

“I was at a legal seminar and I remember a speaker saying that you lose NLRB decisions because you lose presidential elections,” said building trades attorney Doug Korney. “What that means is that President Bush appoints the members of the NLRB, and they reflect his philosophy, not the philosophy of organized labor.

“So yes, the decision by the NLRB to review and possibly eliminate card checks is a problem for labor. Employers who oppose unions are not stupid. They know and unions know that taking elections to the NLRB for certification is more of a burden for unions. Employers are free to use delays in the system to stop certifications and to hold anti-union campaigns.”