On December 22, 2011, the National Labor Relations Board announced that it is making certain changes to its procedures for processing representation cases. Although the new procedures are primarily addressed to cases in which the parties are unable to reach an election agreement, the changes are significant for all such cases.
The new procedures are scheduled to take effect on April 30, 2012, although legal challenges have already been filed.
The procedures that have been adopted consist of some – but not all – of the changes that were proposed by the Board back in June of 2011. The remainder of the proposed changes (which would significantly shorten the time period leading up to a union election in all cases) have not been dropped, but are merely on hold pending further consideration by the Board.
A full article discussing the adopted changes is posted on the Felhaber, Larson, Fenlon & Vogt website, available here.