First, you should assess the strength of your fellow employees’ support for decertification within your specific bargaining unit. Usually, it is not worth calling for such an election unless you believe you can gather support from a majority of co-employees. To win, you will need a majority vote from charter school employees who vote on the election day. Remember, no employer involvement is allowed.

To proceed, you and other charter school employees should collect signatures on a petition that is similar to the following sample petition.

PETITION TO REMOVE UNION AS REPRESENTATIVE

The undersigned employees of ________________________ (employer name) do not want to be represented by ________________________ (union name), hereafter referred to as “union”.

Should the undersigned employees constitute 30% or more, but less than 50%, of the bargaining unit represented by the union, the undersigned employees hereby petition the National Labor Relations Board to hold a decertification election to determine whether the majority of employees also no longer wish to be represented by the union.

In addition, should the undersigned employees constitute 50% or more of the bargaining unit represented by the union, the undersigned employees hereby request that our employer immediately withdraw recognition from the union, as it does not enjoy the support of a majority of employees in the bargaining unit.

These signatures should be collected when the employees are on non-work time, and in non-work areas! You must fill in the names of the union and employer in the blank spaces above before you collect signatures. There should be no employer help, and employer resources should not be used.

For more signature blanks, click here.

Once employees have collected the appropriate number if signatures, they also need to fill out a separate NLRB “Petition” cover sheet, NLRB Form 502. This single sheet of paper is easy to fill out, and is available from any Regional Office of the NLRB. The NLRB’s website contains copies of the Petition form (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader) and others, as well as a directory of the regional NLRB offices in your area.

For more information about other options related to limiting union coercive power over workers, click here.

Finally, you may contact Foundation staff attorneys if you have questions about how to proceed, need assistance getting through to the NLRB, or encounter legal difficulties interfering with your efforts.