The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) General Counsel (GC) filed a brief seeking to expand unions’ right to obtain recognition from employers based on signed authorization cards alone, without the need for a Board election. In a brief filed on April 11 in Cemex Construction Materials Pacific, LLC, No. 28-CA-230115, General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo advocates to reinstate the doctrine set forth in Joy Silk Mills, 85 NLRB 1263 (1949), under which an employer faced with signed authorization cards indicating a union’s majority status has no right to insist on a secret ballot election unless it can establish a good faith doubt of the union’s majority status. It is not clear if Joy Silk were to be reinstated, what would constitute such a “good faith doubt” about majority status. The NLRB finally abandoned the Joy Silk standard by 1969, adopting its current standard, under which an employer presented with signed union authorization cards need not accept the union’s claim of majority status. Instead, the employer can lawfully insist on a secret ballot election. Unions have long advocated a card majority rule. If the NLRB reinstates Joy Silk, employers — and employees — might not have the option of a secret ballot election.

General Counsel Abruzzo is advocating that the Board hold “captive audience” meetings and similar employer campaign conduct violates the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). As part of GC Abruzzo’s campaign to invigorate union organizing, she issued a...