Washington, DC (February 12, 2015) – The National Right to Work Foundation has filed briefs in two federal courts challenging the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) recently-enacted regulations that will further give union organizers the upper hand over independent-minded employees during unionization campaigns.

The rules are designed to dramatically shorten the time individual workers have to share information with their coworkers about the effects of unionization. The regulations also require employers to hand over workers’ private information to union organizers, including their phone numbers and email addresses.

The latest rules changes were rushed out before former union lawyer Nancy Schiffer’s term expired on December 16, 2014. The NLRB had previously rushed the regulations out before former Service Employees International Union (SEIU) lawyer Craig Becker’s term expired in December 2011, but they were later invalidated by a federal district court in 2012 on procedural grounds.

Foundation staff attorneys now argue in amicus curiae briefs filed with the U.S. District Courts for the District of Columbia and the Western District of Texas that the new rules violate federal law, because the Board is shirking its statutory duty to determine the scope of the bargaining unit. Under the rules, unionization elections will proceed despite disputes over the unit’s scope if less than 20 percent of the bargaining unit’s composition is contested.

«It would be absurd for a redistricting commission to assert that it properly defined a congressional district while leaving unresolved whether one-fifth of adjacent counties are in or out of the district,» Foundation attorneys state. «So too is it absurd for the Board to claim it is defining an appropriate bargaining unit while leaving unresolved whether one-fifth of job positions are in that unit.»

«Being up to 20% wrong about the proper scope of a unit is simply not ‘close enough for government work,'» the briefs continue.

Foundation attorneys also argue in the briefs that the rule requiring job providers to hand over the employees’ personal information to union bosses violates workers’ privacy.

«The NLRB has once again regurgitated Big Labor’s wish list with these election rules designed to make unionization campaigns even more one-sided in an effort to boost union bosses’ forced dues ranks,» said Mark Mix, President of the National Right to Work Foundation. «The Obama Labor Board’s latest give-away to Big Labor will ambush unsuspecting workers into union ranks and encroaches on the privacy rights of employees who may oppose unionization in their workplace.»

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 more than 250 cases nationwide per year.