Comments on Employee Representation Elections

The Retail Industry Leaders Association (“RILA”),¹ on behalf of itself and its member companies, submits the following comments in response to the NLRB’s proposed amendments to its rules governing employee representation elections.²  RILA strongly objects to the NLRB’s proposal and agrees  with the specific objections raised in Member Hayes’s dissent and at the NLRB’s hearing on July 18-19, 2011. Our comments draw from the experiences of our member companies to elaborate on four reasons why the NLRB should not adopt its proposed amendments: (1) Requiring employers to develop their legal position in only seven days would be infeasible and unfair; (2) Shortening the time between petition and election would result in employees being critically uniformed; (3) Deferring issues affecting less than 20% of the proposed unit would lead to inaccurate election results and unnecessary confusion; and (4) Providing employee phone numbers and email addresses to unions would result in unwarranted invasions of privacy and interferences with normal business operations. Considered as a whole, the NLRB’s proposed amendments would have the effect of silencing employers and helping unions win elections through unfair-and often misleading-“ambush” tactics.