Federal Labor Board, acting under new Biden-Harris Administration policy, moves swiftly to keep union officials in power despite nurses’ demand for removal vote

Newark, NJ (October 29, 2024) – Registered Nurses at the Clara Maass Medical Center in Belleville Township have filed a petition demanding a vote to remove United Healthcare Workers East (1199SEIU, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union) officials from their workplace. Registered Nurse Nancy Bombaro filed the union decertification petition with Region 22 of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) with free legal aid from National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation staff attorneys.

The NLRB is the federal agency responsible for enforcing federal labor law, which includes administering elections to install (or “certify”) and remove (or “decertify”) unions. Bombaro’s decertification petition contains well over the required threshold of employee signatures needed to trigger a decertification vote under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).

The requested vote would occur among Bombaro’s work unit of “[a]ll full-time, regular part-time, and per-diem Registered Nurses” employed by Clara Maass, but it appears the NLRB is taking action to block the vote at SEIU union officials’ behest.

Because New Jersey lacks Right to Work protections for its private sector workers, SEIU union officials have the legal power to enforce contracts that require Bombaro and her colleagues to pay union dues or fees as a condition of getting or keeping a job. In Right to Work states, in contrast, union membership and financial support are strictly voluntary. A successful decertification vote in a non-Right to Work state like New Jersey strips union officials of both their forced-dues privileges and the ability to impose one-size-fits-all contracts across an entire work unit of employees.

Biden-Harris NLRB Rule Change Lets SEIU Union Officials Trap Workers in Unwanted Union

Despite Bombaro’s petition containing more than enough signatures to prompt a union decertification vote, a recent shift in NLRB policy sparked by the union boss-allied Biden-Harris Administration could indefinitely block the nurses from exercising their right to vote out the SEIU. At the end of last month, the NLRB enacted a new policy reinstating so-called “blocking charges,” which are, in many cases, unproven allegations of employer misconduct used by union officials to stop workers from voting to decertify a union. SEIU union bosses are manipulating such charges to stymie the nurses’ effort.

“My fellow nurses and I are not pleased with the performance of 1199SEIU union officials and simply want to exercise our right to vote out this union,” commented Bombaro. “It was enough work to gather signatures and submit the petition asking for the vote. It’s outrageous that NLRB policy now lets union officials stop us from voting as if they know better than us.”

The Biden-Harris NLRB’s new rule overturns the Election Protection Rule, a set of Foundation-backed reforms the NLRB adopted in 2020 that prevented union boss allegations from stopping a worker-requested decertification election. The reforms also gave workers an opportunity to petition for secret ballot elections after union officials rose to power in a workplace by “card check,” an abuse-prone process which relies on union-solicited “cards” as votes and forbids workers from voting privately.

With the Election Protection Rule gone, union officials again have the power to block worker-requested union decertification votes for months or longer.

“Just weeks after the Biden-Harris NLRB enacted its cynical rule change, union officials are already manipulating it to maintain their own power while crushing the free choice rights of the workers they claim to ‘represent,’” commented National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “Ms. Bombaro and her fellow nurses are just a few of a growing number of workers around the country who want to declare their independence from unwanted union officials. Rather than side with these workers, the Biden-Harris Administration chose to arrange a blatant power giveaway for its Big Labor political cronies.”

The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation is a nonprofit, charitable organization providing free legal aid to employees whose human or civil rights have been violated by compulsory unionism abuses. The Foundation, which can be contacted toll-free at 1-800-336-3600, assists thousands of employees in about 200 cases nationwide per year.