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Law360 (March 31, 2020, 10:23 PM EDT) -- A top House Democrat urged the National Labor Relations Board Tuesday to immediately unfreeze union elections suspended due to the coronavirus outbreak, saying workers' rights to organize are more crucial now than ever.
As workers across the country fight for benefits and face uncertain employment conditions due to the virus' rattling of the economy, letting the agency's March 19 suspension of union representation elections stand until "at least April 3" is unacceptable, Education and Labor Committee Chairman Bobby Scott, D-Va., said in a letter to the agency.
"Given the uncertain timing and geographic spread of the coronavirus, this action postpones — potentially indefinitely — workers' right to choose their union," Scott told NLRB Chairman John Ring in the letter.
Many workers across many industries are facing layoffs and pay cuts and are navigating paid leave and other COVID-related benefits, while others on the front lines of the pandemic attempt to strengthen safety standards and secure pay adjustments for working under hazardous conditions.
"By forfeiting its duty to safely conduct representation elections, the NLRB has undermined its statutory purpose of 'protecting the exercise by workers of full freedom of association, self-organization, and the designation of representatives of their own choosing,'" Scott said.
The Congressman accused the board of avoiding common sense by also suspending elections that were already planned to proceed by mail-in ballot, which don't require in-person interactions and pose no threat to social distancing orders put in place across the country in light of COVID-19.
In its March directive, the agency assured the public that the election freeze, which applies to in-person and mail-in votes, was required for the health of agency workers and the public after it closed offices in Cleveland, New Orleans and other cities.
Limited operations and telework wouldn't allow elections to be effectively conducted, the agency said, adding it would closely watch the situation and may extend the suspension.
Where the decision originated also caused the representative concern. Whether the NLRB's Office of General Counsel, not the board itself, was responsible for the directive "raises serious questions as to whether the general counsel usurped the board's authority, and whether the board simply acquiesced to the general counsel's conduct," Scott wrote.
Representatives for the NLRB didn't respond to requests for comment.
--Additional reporting by Braden Campbell. Editing by Adam LoBelia.
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