Members - cont.

 

Once a majority of workers have signed cards, these are submitted to the U.S. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which sets an election date. A majority of the workers must vote for union re p resentation, before it is authorized to bargain on behalf of the workers. This is a common scenario, although there are many variations. Sometimes, if a majority of workers have signed cards, the employer can decide to recognize the union without an election - although this is increasingly rare.


Some unions are trying to create worker organizations without NLRB jurisdiction. For instance, the IUECWA, part of the Communications Workers of America, formed a membership organization called WAGE (Working at GE) to create pre-unions at two of GE’s nonunion facilities. The Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) has frequently staged walkouts and boycotts without becoming NLRB-sanctioned. Fewer than half of all states legally support the right of public employees to bargain collectively, so many have formed unions anyway. In Mississippi, a notoriously anti-union jurisdiction, the Mississippi Alliance of State Employees has represented thousands of workers despite the lack of legal protection. Similar organizations exist elsewhere.

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