Union Elections Run Faster After Labor Board Rule, Agency Says

Workers are casting ballots in union elections at a faster rate in the nearly four months after the federal labor board’s new rule shortening deadlines and streamlining procedures took effect.

The period between filing a petition with the National Labor Relations Board and balloting in contested elections shrunk from 105 days in fiscal year 2023 to less than 59 days since the election procedure rule became enforceable in late December, the agency said Monday.

More than 40% of elections—both contested votes and those when parties stipulate to election agreements—are counted within 30 days of the petitions being filed, up from 13% in the last fiscal year, the NLRB said.

The NLRB’s Democratic majority last fall shelved a Trump-era rule that made elections slower and more complicated, and reinstated several procedures from a regulation issued during the Obama administration.

That rule, along with the board’s landmark Cemex Construction Materials Pacific LLC ruling, “have significantly improved the Board’s ability to provide workers across the country with a timely and fair process for seeking union representation,” NLRB Chair Lauren McFerran (D) said in a statement.