President Obama vetoed a resolution that would have protected employers from proposed regulations speeding up union elections on Tuesday.
The Republican-controlled House and Senate approved resolutions in March to prevent the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the nation’s top labor arbiter, from implementing new union election rules, which would have eliminated a 25-day waiting period in the union election process. Obama said on Tuesday that the GOP resolution undermined the NLRB’s attempt to “streamline a democratic process that allows American workers to freely choose to make their voices heard.”
Congressional Republicans say that the ambush election rule does more to undermine the democratic process.
Unions and labor organizers spend months and sometimes years to get workers to sign petition cards to organize an election. Employers, meanwhile, are forced to play catch-up, educating workers on the potential downsides of union membership in the small window between the NLRB election petition and the election itself.
