NLRB Sets Liberal New Rules for Use of Mail-In Union Election Ballots

✍ Scribed by Alfred T. DeMaria

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1998
• Weight: 227 KB
• Volume: 21
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0745-4880
• DOI: 10.1002/mare.4080211204

✦ Synopsis

Most Board certified elections are held on-site at the employer's facility during certain times, a procedure aimed at assuring that all employees have the chance to vote. In some circumstances, however, the Board orders an election held by sending out mail-in ballots to all voters. The Board recently issued a decision that appears to make it likely more mail-ballot elections will be ordered by this Board. This development is not good for employers.

The case involved approximately 20 dispatchers who worked for San Diego Gas & Electric at eight locations as much as 80 miles apart in the California desert. The union preferred a mail-ballot election. The company offered instead to have two on-site polling places, such that the majority of employees would be within 6 to 20 miles of the polls. Two employees would be 49 miles away and one employee would be 60 miles away. The union said that plan required some employees to travel too far and that if the employer provided transportation to the voting sites for these employees this would be an unfair advantage in the election.