Organize!

The Process of Building Your Own Union

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is the federal organization that oversees labor and management conduct within private employment settings. Created in the early 1930s, its goals are to promote equity and fairness. “It is declared policy of the United States to encourage collective bargaining and by protecting the exercise of employees the full freedom of association, self-organization and designation of representatives of their own choosing, for the purpose of negotiating the terms and conditions of their employment” (page 2 of the NLRA). The following are procedures required to win union representation:

Filing a Representation Petition

The NLRB requires only 30% of eligible voters to sign union representation cards. However, NUHHCE requests that 75% of the eligible voters in a specific bargaining unit sign union representation cards. This is to ensure victory.

Informal Conference

After a petition is filed, the NLRB will schedule an informal conference including representatives of NUHHCE and management. At this conference the NLRB tries to get all parties to agree on what classifications of employees are eligible for the bargaining unit and when and where the election should be held.

Formal Hearing

If no agreement is reached at the informal conference, the NLRB will schedule a hearing to determine the job classifications eligible to vote. A Board representative will hear testimony from both sides and render a decision and a Direction of Election.

Secret Ballot Election

This is usually scheduled 25-45 days after the NLRB issues Direction of Election. The election is by secret ballot and is supervised by an NLRB representative and will be held on company premises. Non-management employees designated by your Union and by the employer will be at each polling place as observers.

Counting the Votes

Normally the votes are counted by the NLRB the day of the election, after the polls have closed. The count is public and employees are welcome.

Certification

After the election, the NLRB certifies the result of the election. If a majority of the employees who actually vote (not a majority of those eligible, but of those who actually vote) votes for the Union, the Union is certified as a legal representative of the entire group for the purpose of collective bargaining.

Bargaining

A representative negotiating team from all work areas and shifts is elected by the employees to begin the bargaining process with the help of Union Administrative Staff. Each employee is asked to report which policies, benefits, and procedures need to be changed and which need to be kept. Once compiled, these issues form the starting point for the negotiating team. When the Union is certified to represent the employees, the employer is required by law to negotiate in good faith with your Union negotiating team. The employees must vote by secret ballot to accept the terms of contract proposals and the final agreement.

New members do not just happen. They have to be recruited. Although this is a key activity for our representatives, ordinary members can also play a part.

Is there a non-member in your workplace, perhaps working alongside you? Why not tell them about the benefits of union membership? Tell them about our website where they can learn more about such benefits. We want to help and we encourage all of our representatives to make recruitment and organization the bedrock of the union’s work.

Volunteer organizers can add muscle to major union recruiting campaigns. There are many reasons why unions fail to win organizing campaigns, why they abort them soon after launching, and why many campaigns don’t get off the drawing board. But the most serious defect in most organizing campaigns is that very little effort is spent on involving union members. Organizing is treated as a separate activity, carried out almost exclusively by staff people, largely in isolation from the members.

If we can’t get masses of union members to be active participants in recruiting new members, we’re never going to become a bigger and stronger labor movement. Our situation is so critical it will require all of us to take extraordinary measures to fulfill our responsibilities to working America.

Recruit a

non-member today!

New members are the lifeblood of any union. The more members we have, the better we can represent and protect them. Recruitment:

q	makes us more representative

q	increases our negotiating strength

q	provides the resources to negotiate and represent members

q	enables us to maintain a wide range of services

As an affiliate of the AFL-CIO, we have available to us a number of resources that can make your jobs as a union leaders easier, that can help grow your unions and that can help you serve your members better.

As union leaders you have access to:

·	FREE MATERIALS to help you organize and communicate with new members

·	FREE CONTENT for your union newsletter or website, plus a chance to earn cash for your local

·	FREE and exclusive member benefits to SAVE YOUR MEMBERS MONEY and enhance member loyalty

·	Help MANAGE YOUR UNION OFFICE, saving you time and money!

·	FREE MONEY for EDUCATION

To learn more, follow the links in the left-hand sidebar under “Organizing Tools.”