On Thursday, July 7, 2011, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce held a hearing – Rushing Union Elections: Protecting the Interests of Big Labor at the Expense of Workers’ Free Choice – during which the National Labor Relations Board’s proposed changes to pre- and post-representation election case procedures came under fire. Last month, the NLRB issued a proposal that would dramatically change long-standing election procedures. Among other things, the proposed rule would substantially shorten the time between the filing of an election petition and the election itself, limit issues that can be resolved during a pre-election hearing, and give employers as few as five business days to prepare a comprehensive position statement to present to the NLRB. As stated in a committee press release, “taken together, the NLRB’s proposed changes will restrict an employer’s ability to communicate with his or her employees and hinder a worker’s right to make a fully informed decision in a union election.” The Board announced that it would conduct limited public hearings on this issue later this month.  Continue reading this entry at Littler’s Labor Relations Counsel.