Chamber of Commerce, et al. v. National Labor Relations Board

Case Updates

The D.C. District Court upheld the NLRB’s “ambush election” rule, which took effect in April 2015. The Rule significantly shortens the time for holding union elections, allows Board representatives to refuse to accept certain evidence and arguments prior to an election, requires increased disclosure to unions of employee personal information, and requires employers to post additional notices regarding union elections.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, along with the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace, National Association of Manufacturers, National Retail Federation, and Society for Human Resource Management, filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to stop the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) from moving forward with its “ambush elections” rule. The rule significantly shortens the period between the time the union files a request for an election with the Board and the time the election is to be actually held.

According to the Chamber’s lawsuit, the rule violates the National Labor Relations Act and the Administrative Procedure Act, as well as employers’ free speech and due process constitutional rights. In particular, the Chamber’s lawsuit challenges the Board’s rule as impermissibly limiting employers’ rights to communicate with employees about unionization by dramatically shortening the period between the filing of a union election petition and the holding of the election itself.

The Chamber also filed an amicus brief in Baker DC v. NLRB, which has been consolidated into Chamber of Commerce, et al. v. NLRB. Allyson N. Ho, Charles I. Cohen, Michael W. Steinberg, Jonathan C. Fritts and David R. Broderdorf of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, LLP represented the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as co-counsel to the U.S. Chamber Litigation Center in both filings.