Texas Judge Shoots Down Ambush Election Challenge

In Contractors of Texas, Inc. v. National Labor Relations Board, a trade organization and a small business advocacy group challenged the “ambush election rules” that went into effect in April with a four-point argument, but they were rebuffed by a federal judge on all four points. One argument was that the new election process violates the National Labor Relations Act by, in effect, compelling the invasion of employee privacy rights. It’s not clear, the judge wrote, “why Plaintiffs believe disclosure of a list of names and job duties would result in either a violation of the Act or an employee’s personal privacy. Plaintiffs do not explain how this information would interfere with an employee’s ability to exercise his or her right to decline to talk to a union representative.”