Rayalan Kent, an employee of Rieth-Riley Construction in Michigan, has filed an amicus brief with the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. The case centers on whether workers can more easily remove a union from their workplace if they choose. Kent is represented by attorneys from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation.
The legal dispute began after Kent and his coworkers submitted petitions to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) requesting a vote to decertify the International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) Local 324 at their workplace. Although employees were able to cast ballots, the NLRB dismissed the petitions in 2022 and stopped the election hours before votes were counted. The dismissal was based on allegations made by IUOE against Rieth-Riley management dating back to 2018, but no hearing was held to determine if those allegations were related to the workers’ efforts to remove the union.
Kent’s brief asks the court to reject what is known as “merit-determination” dismissals or “blocking charge” policies used by the NLRB. These policies allow elections or vote counts on union representation to be halted due to pending unfair labor practice charges, even if those charges have not been proven. According to Kent’s filing, this violates both federal law and rules established by the NLRB itself.
The brief argues that under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), when employees submit a valid petition for a decertification vote, “the Board ‘shall’ conduct a hearing and ‘shall’ conduct an election when a question of representation exists.” It also states that dismissing such petitions based only on unproven allegations does not comply with congressional intent.
In 2020, the NLRB issued its Election Protection Rule (EPR), which says that so-called “blocking charges” should not prevent elections from taking place or votes from being counted; instead, any related allegations should be addressed after ballots are tallied.
“Here, the Board is refusing to follow its own rules by dismissing Mr. Kent’s decertification petitions because of speculation, unproven allegations, and a confidential ‘investigation’ to which he is not privy,” according to Kent’s brief.
“In this brief, Rayalan Kent and his coworkers speak for all independent-minded American workers, whose clear right under federal law to vote to remove union officials they disapprove of is gravely threatened by the existence of the NLRB’s various invented non-statutory policies,” said Mark Mix, President of National Right to Work Foundation. “Union bosses should not be able to unilaterally override this right, and the Sixth Circuit needs to restore to workers their fundamental rights of free choice under the National Labor Relations Act.”
