The National Labor Relations Board released its most important ruling in many decades. In a party-line decision in Cemex Construction Materials Pacific, LLC, the Board ruled that when a majority of a company’s employees file union affiliation cards, the employer can either voluntarily recognize their union or, if not, ask the Board to run a union recognition election. If, in the run-up to or during that election, the employer commits an unfair labor practice, such as illegally firing pro-union workers (which has become routine in nearly every such election over the past 40 years, as the penalties have been negligible), the Board will order the employer to recognize the union and enter forthwith into bargaining.

The Cemex decision was preceded by another, one day earlier, in which the Board, also along party lines, set out rules for representation elections which required them to be held promptly after the Board had been asked to conduct them, curtailing employers’ ability to delay them, often indefinitely.

Taken together, this one-two punch effectively makes union organizing possible again, after decades in which unpunished employer illegality was the most decisive factor in reducing the nation’s rate of private-sector unionization from roughly 35 percent to the bare 6 percent at which it stands today.

  • DarkGamer@kbin.socialOP
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    6 months ago

    It’s from August but still very relevant, as it seems many people are not aware of this huge accomplishment. Too many are complaining on Lemmy about Biden being anti-union, despite him being the most pro-union president in my lifetime.

    • speff@disc.0x-ia.moe
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      6 months ago

      It’s easier to tear things down / trash talk things rather than advertise accomplishments / build something. That’s why the R agenda of the govt doing nothing can be fulfilled by just having either the House, Senate, or Presidency, but the Ds need all three to do anything meaningful.

      The same concept goes for Biden’s accomplishments. It’s easier / more palatable to go with the status quo and say lol milquetoast, all of them are the same, too old than actually make people care about what he did do. It takes multiple sentences to explain his positives (like what actually happened with the rail strike) and just a few words to call him useless and dismiss the conversation entirely.