Rick and Allan want to start a union in the small factory where they work. Outline the basic procedures they will need to follow to get a union recognized as the exclusive bargaining unit for the company employees

Answer 1

A union organizing effort generally involves the following pattern:
• Campaign: Union organizers talk with employees and persuade them to form a union. The organizers may be employees of the company, who simply chat with fellow workers about unsatisfactory conditions; or a union may send nonemployees of the company to hand out union leaflets to workers as they arrive and depart from work.
• Authorization cards: Union organizers ask workers to sign authorization cards, which state that the particular worker requests the specified union to act as her sole bargaining representative. If a union obtains authorization cards from a sizable percentage of workers, it seeks recognition as the exclusive representative for the bargaining unit. The union may ask the employer to recognize it as the bargaining representative, but most of the time, employers refuse to recognize the union voluntarily.
• Petition: Assuming that the employer does not voluntarily recognize a union, the union generally petitions the NLRB for an election. It must submit to the NLRB regional office authorization cards signed by at least 30 percent of the workers. The regional office verifies whether there are enough valid cards to warrant an election and looks closely at the proposed bargaining unit to make sure that it is appropriate. If the regional office determines that the union has identified an appropriate bargaining unit and has enough valid cards, it orders an election.
• Election: The NLRB closely supervises the election to ensure fairness. All members of the proposed bargaining unit vote on whether they want the union to represent them. If more than 50 percent of the workers vote for the union, the NLRB designates that union as the exclusive representative of all members of the bargaining unit. When unions hold representation elections, they win about 60 percent of the time.