Last week, Education and Labor Committee Chairman Robert C. Scott (VA-03) and Committee Democrats filed an amicus brief petitioning the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to combat anti-union employers from rigging union representation elections. The brief urges the NLRB to reinstate a policy under Specialty Healthcare, which heightened the burden placed on employers attempting to demonstrate that other excluded employees belong in a petitioned-for bargaining unit.

The NLRB had overturned its decision in Specialty Healthcare on Dec. 5, 2017, in PCC Structurals, Inc. following the election of Donald Trump and a general shift away from Obama-era policies. Committee Democrats state that the current standard provides employers with too much power to effectively gerrymander union elections by adding employees to the voting pool to dilute support for certain union representatives. The Specialty Healthcare standard, on the other hand, provides appropriate deference to workers’ preferences in resolving questions concerning the structure of a bargaining unit, rather than to those of the employer. This, the Committee Democrats argue, is central to worker freedom of association and the right to bargain collectively.