RILA Conference

LABOR

The pro-union agenda pursued by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) hurts retail businesses, employees and customers. Anti-business regulations are a drag on economic growth and job creation. RILA opposes these ill-conceived decisions and supports Congressional efforts to protect employer rights.

Congressional indifference towards Big Labor’s top priority, the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), has resulted in a flurry of related activity within the Obama Administration as union leaders have focused their efforts squarely on achieving EFCA’s goals through the regulatory process. Actions taken by the DOL, NLRB and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) will have a dramatic effect on the employer-employee relationship.

Micro-Unions

The NLRB reversed decades of precedent in their 2011 decision in Specialty Healthcare. The decision paves the way for unions to gerrymander workplaces to cherry pick a small segment of workers to establish micro-unions. Micro-unions will create unnecessary divisions within a workplace and undermine staffing flexibility while also reducing career development opportunities by limiting cross-training.

NLRB officials have already begun to apply the new standard in a retail environment, recognizing a micro-bargaining unit made up of second and fifth floor contemporary women’s shoe department employees at a New York Bergdorf Goodman store, and a unit comprised of cosmetics and fragrance employees at a Massachusetts Macys.

Ambush Elections

In 2011, the NLRB engaged in a rulemaking to produce ambush elections, shortening the time before a union election and dramatically undermining employers’ right to raise objections to bargaining unit composition and other issues fundamental to a fair election.

This move erodes employers’ free speech and due process rights, and opens the door to rushed elections that will deny

Resource Center

ISSUE BRIEF: Labor, Employment and the NLRB

AMICUS BRIEF: RILA Urges Courts to Overturn Micro-Union Case

RELEASE: RILA Comments on NLRB Recess Appointments Decision

employees access to critical information and time to consider the issues at hand prior to entering the voting booth.

Last year, the US District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that the National Labor Relations Board's ambush elections rule is "invalid” on technical grounds. In 2013, the NLRB is likely to either appeal the ruling or reissue the decision.

2013 OBJECTIVE

RILA is committed to using all means necessary to fight ill-advised labor regulations that hurt retailers, and their employees, and undermine job growth.