Decertification Elections

Decertification elections can be held to remove a union as the representative of company workers. This cannot happen within a year of a previous failed attempt at decertification, and management of the company can’t bring a decertification petition up on its own.
Management cannot even directly encourage this action on the part of the employees. It can, however, provide information to employees regarding decertification processes if they request it, “as long as the company does so without threatening its employees or promising them benefits.” Employees or other groups such as another union or labor organization must bring decertification petitions forward. Any impetus for decertification must come from the workers rather than the employer.
In general, if there is an existing labor contract in effect and the duration of that contract is 3 years or less, a petition can’t be brought to the NLRB until a window between 60 and 90 days before the end of the contract.
What happens in a decertification process? First, 30% of covered employees must sign a petition for decertification of the union. Once this happens, the election process proceeds in pretty much the same way as the process for voting for union representation.
Remember, though, that the employer cannot directly or indirectly encourage the decertification process. To avoid any implications of influence over the process, companies need to require that signatures on the decertification petition be collected in the same manner as are signatures for a certification petition-on nonwork time and in nonwork areas.