| President Obama Expected to Veto Today, the House passed an AGC-supported resolution that would nullify the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) rule on representation-case procedures, which will go into effect on April 14, 2015. The vote fell mostly along party lines with Republicans supporting and Democrats opposing. The resolution passed the Senate earlier this month and will now be sent to the president’s desk. However, President Obama has indicated his intention to veto the legislation, which Congress will be unlikely to overturn. Therefore, a lawsuit making its way through the court system may be the best and last chance at blocking the rule before the implementation date. The rule is known as the “quickie election” or “ambush election” rule, and it would expedite the union representation election cycle to as few as 14 days from the union’s filing of a petition for an election. It is bad for both employers and employees. It would deny employers due process by limiting review of critical issues such as identifying the appropriate bargaining unit and voter eligibility potentially until after the vote is held. It would also limit workers’ access to information and provide inadequate time for workers to consider information about joining the union. The rule would have a particularly difficult application in the construction industry due to the complexity of identifying the appropriate bargaining unit and determining voter eligibility in the industry due to the decentralized nature of construction workplaces operated by the same employer. AGC believes this issue to be of such importance to the construction industry that AGC designated the House and Senate votes as “key votes” in its scorecard of congressional votes. For more information, please contact Jim Young at youngj@agc.org or (202) 547-0133. Return to Top |
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