NLRB retains longstanding contract-bar doctrine News
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NLRB retains longstanding contract-bar doctrine

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) decided Wednesday to retain its longstanding contract-bar doctrine.

In a unionized workplace, employees can file decertification petitions if they are dissatisfied with union representation and seek to no longer be represented by that specific union. However, under the NLRB’s current application of the contract-bar doctrine, a valid collective-bargaining agreement bars a representation petition during the term of that collective-bargaining agreement. The bar can only last for three years. During the contract-bar period, the Board dismisses all representation petitions unless they are filed in a “window period” that begins 90 days and ends 60 days before the contract expires.

In 2020, an employee at Mountaire Farms filed a petition for decertification with enough signatures from his co-workers for a decertification vote to proceed. However, United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 27, the union that represents Mountaire Farms workers, argued that the contract-bar doctrine applied and barred the petition. The collective-bargaining agreement is for the period of December 22, 2018 through December 21, 2023.

In July, the NLRB invited comments on the current rule and whether it should be rescinded, retained as it was, or retained with modifications.

On Wednesday, the NLRB decided to retain the rule as it has been. The Board reviewed 17 amicus briefs from a variety of sources, including from the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), individual unions, union-opposing groups, law professors and law students. The Board voiced concern about the window periods but ultimately decided to retain the contract-bar rule. It applied the rule in its decision, which barred the decertification petition.

This decision has been opposed by groups such as National Right to Work, which stated that the NLRB “steamrolled the statutory rights” of the workers at Mountaire Farms.