Dive Brief:
- The United States District Court for the Western District of Texas has denied one of the employer community’s challenges to the NLRB’s "ambush" election rules, according to a blog post by Hunton & Williams LLP, a national law firm.
- The firm says the NLRB’s new election rules, which went into effect on April 14, 2015, shorten the potential timeline for elections to be held to 11 to 12 days after a union representation petition has been filed.
- So far, several business groups have challenged the validity of the ambush rules in the federal courts.
Dive Insight:
Hunton reports that the case in quesiton, Associated Builders and Contractors of Texas, Inc., et al. v. NLRB, had the plaintiffs arguing for the invalidation of the ambush rules through an expedited summary judgment bid.
“While the ruling is a blow to the employer community’s opposition to the new rules, it is not the end of the road,” says Greg Robertson, a Hunton & Williams’ labor and employment attorney and team head.
The firm noted that the plaintiffs plan to appeal and a second lawsuit challenging the rules is pending in federal court in Washington, D.C. Ultimately, the employers can't count on the success of the legal challenges to the ambush rules in federal court.
"Employers must be prepared to run an effective campaign within a time frame that will likely become more constricted in the next few months," said Robertson, adding the NLRB has already reduced the median timeline from 38 days to around 23 days and he would "expect to see that number drop."
