Some Starbucks Workers Want To Decertify Their Union. Here's Why They Can't.
Labor Relations 101: Unions are easier to vote in than they are to vote out.
QUICK FACTS:
Starbucks workers in Oklahoma have filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to hold a vote to decertify Starbucks Workers United
The union was voted in earlier in the summer
Even if 100% of the employees want to decertify the union, due to the NLRB’s ‘Election Bar’ rules, the NLRB is very likely going to dismiss the workers’ petition
DETAILS:
Background. Some workers at a Starbucks store in Nichols Hills, Oklahoma are seeking to decertify Starbucks Workers United five months after voting to unionize, and a mere three months after their election was finally resolved.
On Tuesday, a petition was filed with a regional office of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) asking the NLRB to hold a decertification election.
In order for an election petition to be processed by the NLRB, it must have at least thirty percent (30%) of the workers’ support. However, in the case of the Starbucks workers’ petition—even if 100% of the employees wanted to decertify the union—the NLRB is very likely going to dismiss the workers’ petition.
NLRB’s ‘Election Bar’ Rules. When employees vote to unionize, as the Starbucks workers did earlier this year, the union has a one year period to attempt to negotiate a contract. If, during that year, employees try to decertify the union within that year, their attempt will be dismissed by the NLRB.
Here’s what the NLRB states in its Basic Guide to the National Labor Relations Act:
“…the NLRB has established a rule that when a representative has been certified by the Board, the certification will ordinarily be binding for at least 1 year and a petition filed before the end of the certification year will be dismissed.” [Emphasis added.]
NLRB Contract Bar Rules. To further complicate matters for the Starbucks employees, if the company and the union enter into a contract within that year—even if employees don’t like the contract1—they will not be able to decertify the union for the length of the contract, or three years (whichever is less) under the NLRB's Contract Bar Rules.
Under the NLRB rules a valid contract for a fixed period of 3 years or less will bar an election for the period covered by the contract. [Emphasis added.]
In fact, in a decision issued just last year, the NLRB re-affirmed its longstanding contract-bar doctrine:
Under that doctrine, the Board ordinarily will not process any representation or decertification petition that is filed during the first 3 years of a valid collective-bargaining agreement, save for petitions filed during a specified “window period” before the expiration date of the agreement. [Emphasis added.]
Conclusion. Even if 100% of the employees in Starbucks’ Oklahoma store want to decertify the union they recently voted in, they will likely be forbidden to do so until, at a minimum, the union’s one-year certification has passed—or, perhaps, longer if a contract is reached.
Under the National Labor Relations Act, there is nothing that states employees must be given the right to vote on accepting or rejecting a collective bargaining agreement.