Dana undone

In 2007 the NLRB decided Dana Corporation, a thoughtful decision about how to safeguard employees rights to select their bargaining representative. In Lamons Gasket Co., (download here) the Board returns to its pre-Dana law which does not allow a challenge to voluntary recognition by dissident employees. There is always potential for collusive or abusive action in a voluntary recognition scenario (where an employer agrees to recognize a union without an election to determine majority status support for the labor organization). Dana provided a mechanism for a significant number of employees to challenge voluntary recognition by petitioning the NLRB to conduct a secret ballot election to determine whether the union actually represented an un-coerced majority of the employees. This was a pro-employee decision and a prototype for labor reform that avoids the EFCA albatross of eliminating secret ballot elections. Our previous posts are here and here. Essentially card check majorities would be valid, unless 30 percent of the affected employees petitioned for a secret ballot election within 45 days of being notified of voluntary recognition. While many Bush Board decisions altered labor law in ways that advanced employer interests to the detriment of labor, Dana was an enlightened attempt to protect employee rights.