formal comments to the Board's proposed rule. - SEIU
formal comments to the Board's proposed rule. - SEIU
formal comments to the Board's proposed rule. - SEIU
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
The requirement for prompt and complete voter eligibility lists will help <strong>to</strong> prevent similar tactics from<br />
interfering with communication <strong>to</strong> employees under <strong>the</strong> <strong>proposed</strong> <strong>rule</strong>s.<br />
information —<br />
The modernization of <strong>the</strong> voter eligibility lists —<br />
is<br />
including<br />
<strong>the</strong> expansion of required contact<br />
crucial for ensuring an informed elec<strong>to</strong>rate. The reasoning that <strong>the</strong> Supreme Court gave<br />
in 1969 in approving Excelsior applies with equal force <strong>to</strong> modern means of communication <strong>to</strong>day: <strong>the</strong><br />
disclosure of employee information fur<strong>the</strong>rs <strong>the</strong> objective of a fair representation election “by<br />
encouraging an informed employee elec<strong>to</strong>rate and by allowing unions <strong>the</strong> right of access <strong>to</strong> employees<br />
that management already possesses.”<br />
95 Today, <strong>the</strong> disclosure of phone numbers, emails, and work shift<br />
information—like <strong>the</strong> addresses disclosed under Excelsior—is necessary <strong>to</strong> ensure an informed<br />
elec<strong>to</strong>rate. Indeed, “effective opportunities <strong>to</strong> communicate” are <strong>the</strong> heart of <strong>the</strong> Excelsior<br />
requirements.<br />
96 If <strong>the</strong> purpose of <strong>the</strong> list—<strong>to</strong> allow workers <strong>to</strong> make an informed choice about union<br />
representation—is <strong>to</strong> be preserved, <strong>the</strong> 1966 requirements must be expanded <strong>to</strong> include phone numbers,<br />
email addresses, and work shifts.<br />
Today, employers <strong>to</strong>day routinely communicate with <strong>the</strong>ir employees by phone and email, and<br />
this includes conveying <strong>the</strong>ir desire that <strong>the</strong> employees not form a union.<br />
97 Unions, on <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r hand,<br />
do not even have this basic contact information. The result is a drastic inequality in <strong>the</strong> union’s ability<br />
<strong>to</strong> exchange information with employees. “As a result of [<strong>the</strong>] one-sided process, recent data show that<br />
in a typical union campaign, fewer than half <strong>the</strong> employees have even a single home conversation with a<br />
union representative during <strong>the</strong> course of <strong>the</strong> entire election season.”<br />
sometimes obtain little or no useful contact information from current Excelsior lists.<br />
98 Indeed, workers and unions<br />
Since <strong>the</strong> 1966, <strong>the</strong> ways in which people transmit and receive information has changed<br />
radically. For example, door-<strong>to</strong>-door solicitations are nearly extinct<br />
99 and first-class USPS mail appears<br />
<strong>to</strong> be undergoing a decline that is almost as steep, with <strong>the</strong> current volume being <strong>the</strong> lowest in twenty-<br />
five years<br />
10° and declines projected <strong>to</strong> continue.<br />
NLRB v. Wyman-Gordon Co., 394 U.S. 759, 767 (1969).<br />
95<br />
101 As of 2010, 39.6 billion emails were being sent every<br />
96 See Excelsior Underwear, Inc., 156 NLRB 1236, 1240 (1966). (“[A]n employee who has had an effective opportunity <strong>to</strong><br />
hear <strong>the</strong> arguments concerning representation is in a better position <strong>to</strong> make a more fully informed. . . choice... [I]t is<br />
appropriate for us <strong>to</strong> remove <strong>the</strong> impediment <strong>to</strong> communication <strong>to</strong> which our new <strong>rule</strong> is directed”).<br />
E See, e.g., Testimony by management at<strong>to</strong>rney Ronald Holland, NLRB Public Hearing (July 18, 2011), at<br />
11:40 a.m (conceding that “many of [his] clients do have employees who have not only workplace email but carry<br />
BlackBerries or phones or cell phones where <strong>the</strong>y can retrieve <strong>the</strong>ir email”).<br />
James Rundle, Winning Hearts and Minds in <strong>the</strong> Era ofEmployee Involvement Programs, in Organizing <strong>to</strong> Win: New<br />
Research on Union Strategies 219 (Kate Bronfenbrenner ed., 1998).<br />
See Jobs in danger of extinction—Changing times eliminate or drastically alter some livelihoods, Florida Times-Union,<br />
Ari1 29, 2008, at http://jacksonville.corn/tu-online/s<strong>to</strong>ries/0429(38/lif273138922.shtml.<br />
° First Class Mail Volume Since 1926 at ww’ ups corn postalhs<strong>to</strong>r pdt FirstCissMaill6<strong>to</strong>201() pdf<br />
25