On October 28, the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace (CDW) and several other employer organizations filed an amicus brief with the National Labor Relations Board in Constellation Energy Generation, LLC, in which less than half of the employees in the bargaining unit voted in favor of union representation. The brief urges the Board to apply to the statutory text of the National Labor Relations Act, requiring a majority of employees in the proposed unit to vote for unionization, rather than a majority of the votes cast.

The following statement can be attributed to CDW Chair Kristen Swearingen:

“Once a union is certified, it speaks for every worker in the bargaining unit. That is why the NLRA explicitly requires a union be chosen by a majority of the employees in the unit, not merely a majority of those who cast a ballot. Congress wanted unions to have true majority support before they could act as the exclusive bargaining representatives of a workplace.

“For nearly 90 years, the Board has replaced the text of the NLRA with its own policy judgment, enabling unions to take hold of a workplace without the support of the workers in question. Loper Bright makes clear that this longstanding error cannot and should not continue. We urge the Board to restore the standard Congress actually enacted and ensure that no worker is bound to a union that a majority of their coworkers never chose.”