In a blatant effort to take advantage of a change in the membership of the National Mediation Board (NMB), unions have petitioned the NMB to alter its longstanding procedures on how representation elections are conducted.

Since the NMB was created in the 1930s, it has held that a union will be certified to represent a classification of employees only if 50 percent plus 1 of the entire employee group affirmatively votes in favor of union representation. In light of this "majority rule" requirement, the NMB's standard ballot does not include an option for an employee to vote against representation. Instead, employees "vote" no by simply not returning a ballot.

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