Louisiana poultry worker files new petition seeking vote on UFCW Local 455 representation

In addition to filing petitions, Hally submitted a Request for Review asking the NLRB to eliminate its three-year contract bar rule. He argues that this policy does not appear in the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) and was created by NLRB officials without legal authority. According to federal law, workers can only be denied an election if another one occurred within the previous 12 months.

The contract bar has delayed any opportunity for Hally and his colleagues to hold an NLRB-supervised secret ballot election on union representation. Critics argue this rule shields unions from being removed even when they lack majority support among workers.

“A system that necessitates the filing of two separate petitions, signed by a majority of a workplace, seeking to remove one union is not only a broken system, but one that actively works against the best interests of employees,” said Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “Big Labor is not content with the special privileges granted to them by the law. Union bosses have also seen to it that they get a protected status from a federal agency that ought to be neutral and uncompromised.”

Mix added: “The NLRB needs to re-establish its impartiality in dealing with disputes of American workers by doing away with the ‘contract bar’ and other non-statutory ‘bars’ that only serve to protect incumbent union bosses’ power over workplaces where they are opposed by most workers.”