Employees at Rieth-Riley Construction Company have been petitioning the NLRB to remove the Operating Engineers Local 324 as their union since April. Finally, the petition was approved and a decertification election by mail was scheduled to run from October to November 9th.
Hours before the ballots were set to be counted, the Regional Director dismissed the petition due to unresolved allegations that the union made against the company. This is essentially a ‘blocking charge’ at play.
A blocking charge is a ULP charge ‘alleging unlawful conduct that might interfere with an employees’ ability to make a free and fair choice of representation.’
In the past, when a blocking charge was filed, the pending election was dismissed until the charges were resolved, but as it became more widely known that unions were filing blocking charges as a means to delay elections that they feared they may not win, it became clear that the policy needed to change.
And change it did, earlier this year. The new rule states that, even when a blocking charge is filed, the election must continue, but representation changes may be delayed until the resolution of the charge. So why then, was the decertification election at Rieth-Riley dismissed?
Employees at the company have petitioned the NLRB to overturn the regional director’s decision and have the votes counted as they stand.
