In a last minute Christmas present for organized labor, the National Labor Relations Board issued a rule that will lead to speedier union elections and make it easier for unions to gain members.

The U.S. Chamber responded swiftly and forcefully, immediately filing a federal lawsuit against the NLRB to challenge the “ambush election rule.”

“This rule has no conceivable purpose but to make it easier for unions to win elections,” says Randy Johnson, the Chamber’s senior vice president of Labor, Immigration, and Employee Benefits. “While couched in technicalities, the purpose of this regulation is to cut-off free speech rights to educate employees about the effects of unionization. The elimination of these rights has long been on the wish list of organized labor, and the board has dutifully granted that wish.” 

The new rule, to take effect on April 30, will limit pre-election legal challenges and give more power to NLRB hearing officials to speed up the election process. 

The board postponed finalization of other portions of a broader rule it proposed in June. Those provisions include setting a pre-election hearing seven days after a union election petition is filed and forcing companies to share workers’ email addresses and personal phone numbers with union organizers. The NLRB says it still plans to consider those portions of the rule at a later date.

In its lawsuit, the Chamber charges that the NLRB’s rule imposes unprecedented and sweeping changes to the procedures for conducting workplace elections in violation of the National Labor Relations Act, the Administrative Procedure Act, the Regulatory Flexibility Act, and free speech and due process constitutional rights.
 
The ambush election regulation is the board’s last major policy decision before it drops to two members and can no longer issue new rules. “In the board’s rush to get this rule out the door before Craig Becker’s appointment ended, the board ran roughshod over a host of federal statutes,” says Robin Conrad, executive vice president of the U.S. Chamber’s public policy law firm, the National Chamber Litigation Center.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, is called Chamber of Commerce, et al. v. NLRB.