D.C. Hotline: NLBMDA opposes “ambush” union elections

The National Lumber and Building Material Dealers Association (NLBMDA) condemned the new “ambush election” union rule issued by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which creates unprecedented and sweeping changes to union election rules in the workplace at the expense of small business owners. The Coalition for a Democratic Workplace, of which NLBMDA is a member, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce immediately filed suit in federal court to stop the rule’s implementation.

“When it became clear that organized labor’s agenda to impose sweeping changes to labor law through the proposed card check legislation had failed in Congress, the NLRB delivered an early Christmas gift to its union allies by finalizing the ambush election law,” said NLBMDA president Michael O’Brien. “The law’s only purpose is to make it easier for unions to win elections at the expense of the free speech rights of business owners.”

The lawsuit, Chamber of Commerce, et al. v. NLRB, has been filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. It challenges the new rule’s requirements that speed up union election process, restrict how employers can communicate with their employees about the impact of unionization, and curbs the rights of employers to challenge proposed representation elections.