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Union elections are held in the US under regulations established by the National Labor Relations Board. These include, among other things, a secret ballot and m
by jcrawfordor 4y ago
Union elections are held in the US under regulations established by the National Labor Relations Board. These include, among other things, a secret ballot and measures against coercion. Employers are generally required to recognize a union which wins such an election.
That said, it is also common for acquisitions to be structured as a transaction in which all employees are terminated by the acquired organization and hired by the new organization. This effectively "resets" the process and may require employees to hold a new election. However, employers can always recognize a voluntarily and skip the NLRB process which would make recognition mandatory. It seems that Microsoft has indicated their willingness to do so.
- anamax 4y agoA secret ballot is NOT the only means. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Card_check https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Card_check
- jcrawfordor 4y agoThe card check process is more of a special case of voluntary recognition, in which the employer can agree to skip the election if the petition for election already has a majority of the employees. Typically the employer can still require that an election by secret ballot be performed, the exception requires special dispensation of the NLRB which is obtained by demonstrating that the employer has or intends to tamper with the election. The concept of a normalized card-check-only process is generally favored by unions because the NLRB election process is widely viewed as excessively favoring employers. However, it has never passed congress. That is, the "card check" as it is often discussed doesn't actually exist as the legislation proposing it has never passed. The existing mechanism is a fairly narrow exception that mostly exists for employer convenience.