formal comments to the Board's proposed rule. - SEIU

esidents and their families. Management started an anti-union campaign within two days of the
organizing effort. In less than two weeks, with the help of a professional union-busting consultant,
workers found themselves in a vicious intimidation and harassment campaign that continues to this day
nearly four years later. This anti-union campaign was launched and succeeded before workers ever filed
a petition. In the words of one CNA, Trisha Miechur:
While we were trying to form our union, we were repeatedly taken away from our
residents to go to mandatory meetings with these consultants and our bosses who told us
a union will not make it better... .1 thought I had legal rights but it seemed the system was
blind to what was happening to us, that it existed to work against us, and for our bosses to
treat us wrong. Unless the process changes, stories like mine will never change.
Management has all the power to make you afraid the next day at work will be your last
just because you want to have a voice in improving the company.
Ultimately, even though a majority of workers signed authorization cards, Trisha and her co
workers decided not to file an election petition. They were worried that the employer’s anti-union
campaign would only intensify in response, and under the current system, had no guarantee that the
election would be scheduled promptly. Had there been greater certainty as to the date of the election
and limits on the potential for frivolous litigation in the hearing process, Trisha and her co-workers
would have been more willing to move forward with an election. However, due to their knowledge of
the election system’s flaws, they felt the risks were too high to proceed.
SEIU’s experience organizing workers at NCH and ManorCare are hidden when the “union win
rate” for NLRB elections is calculated because elections were never held and so there was never an
official “loss.” What those who cite union win rates as proof that the system is working ignore is that
anti-union campaigns like these are often so devastating that workers withdraw the petition altogether,
rather than holding an election they have no realistic hope of winning in the face of employer’s harsh
tactics and fierce opposition. A true accounting should reflect the way employer surveillance,
discrimination and other unfair labor practices can squelch a union campaign before an election can be
held. Any measure of the election system’s health must include workers who organize for change, but
eventually give up in the face of fierce opposition by their employer and uncertain possibilities of
protection, remedy, or prompt election by the NLRB. By this measure, it is clear that the there are too
many workplaces where a majority wants a union, but the flaws in the process prevent workers from
ever getting a fair election.
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