The Election Rules Are Back

One big question when the NLRB adopted the pared down set of election rules was what the Board would do if/when it got more members.  Given that the recess appointments have happened, it's not a big suprise to think that the Board would try to move ahead in some fashion--which is exactly what Chairman Pearce has said will happen.  There's obviously going to be a political element to this, although I wonder how much more this matters given what labor proponents are already doing, even now that Boeing has gone away.  Of more interest to me is what the three new Board members will think about the proposals and possible news ones. I've mentioned before that I thought some of the dropped proposals made a lot of sense (like using e-mail where warranted), but there were still a lot of open questions (e.g., what to do about  blocking charge policy).  And, of course, there could be entirely new things put on the table.

My guess is that things will progress slowly for a while as the new members get settled in and finally get a chance to provide their input.  In fact, we could even be looking at an additional comment period if newp proposals are added.  Stay tuned . . . .

-JH