Court kills, for now, NLRB attempt to speed union elections

WASHINGTON - A federal district judge in D.C. has turned down the National Labor Relations Board's request to reconsider and reverse his prior ruling killing - for now - the board's planned rule to make union recognition elections fairer and more efficient.

The rejection by District Judge James Boasberg cheered the Radical Right, the Chamber of Commerce - which sued to stop the rule - and anti-worker House Education and the Workforce Committee Chairman John Kline, R-Minn. And it left the board pondering its next move in the controversy.

Boasberg originally threw out the rule earlier this year because, he decided, the NLRB lacked a quorum when it passed the measure last December 16. The board's two Democratic members voted for the rule, but its sole Republican, Brian Hayes neither opposed it nor abstained. He didn't vote at all.

The NLRB's rule would deprive businesses of some of procedural tricks they use to delay and deny workers the right to vote on whether to unionize. It would consolidate hearings, mandate hearings on eligibility be after the vote, and set a time limit for objecting to election procedures, among other things.

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