Although private-sector union membership in the United States is near its all-time low at just under 7 percent, recent actions by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB or “the Board”) and U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL) make New Jersey businesses vulnerable to unionization now more than ever. The NLRB’s and USDOL’s actions—the most notable of which is the Board’s decision to expedite its union election procedures last April—have set the table for a wave of union organizing that this country has not seen since the 1950s, when over a third of the private sector workforce was unionized.
In addition to the new “quickie” election rules, which have quite literally left companies speechless, the NLRB has recently issued decisions that allow unions to cherry-pick the employees who will vote in union elections, and opened the floodgates to unionization for new groups of workers by expanding its interpretation of “employers” and “employees” under the National Labor Relations Act. Most recently, the USDOL issued a new “persuader” rule, which expands employers’ obligations to publicly report engagements that they enter into with labor consultants (including attorneys), creating a disincentive for businesses to take steps to insulate themselves from unionization when they may need to most.
