Seven labor unions asked the National Labor Relations Board yesterday to order employers to bargain with unions, even when the unions represent only a minority of employees. þþThis would be a sharp departure from current practices, in which employers are required to bargain with a union only after it shows that a majority of employees at a workplace support it.þþThe unions hope that such a change will make it easier to unionize workers. Today, 7.4 percent of private-sector workers belong to unions, less than a fourth of the rate in the 1950s. þþThe unions involved in the bid, including the United Steelworkers and the United Auto Workers, say the labor board should return to a largely forgotten practice, prevalent in the 1930s, in which companies often bargained with unions representing only a minority of workers who had joined them. þþ“This is what the text of the National Labor Relations Act requires, and there are no decisions to the contrary,” said Charles J. Morris, an emeritus professor of labor law at Southern Methodist University and the foremost champion of this notion.þþUnion officials acknowledged that the labor board, currently dominated by appointees of President Bush, would probably not adopt a rule so favorable to unions. But union officials said they were petitioning now in the hope that there will be a Democratic president someday who will appoint a board that will look favorably upon their argument.þþDaniel Halem, a lawyer with Proskauer Rose, which represents many employers, called the unions’ argument “a radical concept.” He said it conflicted with the premise of the National Labor Relations Act “that unions must have the support of a majority of employees.”þþ“This concept is totally at odds with that,” Mr. Halem said. “For that reason, this petition is going nowhere.”þþPatricia Gilbert, a spokeswoman for the labor board, declined to comment.þþThe unions’ legal papers note that the steelworkers and auto workers were at first minority, members-only unions at several companies and then obtained good contracts that helped persuade 180,000 other workers to organize as part of majority-backed unions.þþTwenty-five law professors wrote to the labor board yesterday in support of the unions’ interpretation of the statute, saying that minority, members-only unions can provide “a useful and often-needed steppingstone to majority-based” unions.þþThe National Labor Relations Act, passed in 1935, states that unions can be the exclusive bargaining agent for all employees at a workplace only after there is a showing of majority support. But the unions argued yesterday that even when a union does not represent a majority, employers still have a duty to bargain with a minority union, but not on an exclusivity basis representing all employees.þþIn 2005, the steelworkers persuaded dozens of employees at a Dick’s Sporting Goods distribution center in Pennsylvania to become members. The union then asked the labor board to order Dick’s to bargain with that members-only group. But the board’s general counsel rejected the request. þþAdopting a new strategy, the unions petitioned the board yesterday to issue a formal rule requiring employers nationwide to negotiate with minority, members-only unions. The unions said their proposal advanced the National Labor Relations Act’s goal of encouraging collective bargaining. þþThe unions’ legal moves supplement labor’s efforts to recruit more workers through legislation that would give employees at a workplace the right to unionize as soon as a majority signed cards favoring unionization, instead of holding a formal vote. þþ
Source: NY Times
