Labor Board Brings Mail-In Vote Test in Line With CDC Metric (1)

The National Labor Relations Board made it less likely that union elections will be held by mail because of the coronavirus pandemic after it changed its legal test to use a less stringent factor.

In a decision Thursday involving Starbucks Corp., the NLRB announced that it will no longer use trends in new Covid-19 case counts or the testing positivity rates as one of the elements that could trigger mail elections.

Instead, the multi-factor test from its 2020 decision in Aspirus Keweenaw will use the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Community Risk system, which uses Covid hospitalization rates rather ...