LABOR RELATIONS

Union Authorization Cards: Change in NH Law for Public Employers

November 2007

By Anne G. Scheer*
for Town and City Magazine, a publication of the
New Hampshire Local Government Center

Until September 15, 2007, New Hampshire law provided that a union wanting to represent employees working for the state, a county, a city or a town first had to ask employees to a sign cards or a form indicating that the employee had an interest in the union. If the union got these cards signed by 30 percent or more of the employees it sought to represent, the union could file the cards with the New Hampshire Public Employee Labor Relations Board and ask for a secret ballot election to determine if a majority of the employees wanted union representation.

That is no longer the law. Now, if a union gets cards/forms signed by more than 50 percent of the employees it seeks to represent, it can be certified to represent all employees in the group without an election.

This is a huge change in the law. Before this change, if an employee signed a union card they weren't necessarily deciding then that they wanted union representation. Instead, by signing a union card employees were authorizing an election to be held. Before the election was held, employees could get information from the union and their employer to help them decide how they wanted to vote in the secret ballot election. That isn't the case anymore.

Now, if an employee signs a union card/form and more than 50 percent of their coworkers also sign a card or form, the union can be authorized to represent all of these workers without an election. What hasn't changed is that New Hampshire law still requires that in order to form a union there must be a group of 10 or more employees with a community of interest. So, towns with few employees having similar conditions of employment should not be affected by this change in New Hampshire law.

But in many NH municipalities with 10 or more employees, unions are currently working to quickly get employees to sign union authorization cards/forms. Unfortunately, many employees sign union authorization cards because they feel pressured by a coworker or union organizer or just because they don't want to say no. If your employees are not unionized you may want to quickly let them know what signing a union authorization card/form now means for public employees in New Hampshire.

What an employer can and cannot say to employees and/or may want or not want to say to employees regarding union organizing can be politically charged and is a highly regulated area of the law. A municipality would be well advised to consult an attorney and consider possible political ramifications before making any oral or written statements about this to employees. In a nutshell, the law prohibits employers from threatening, intimidating, making promises, conducting surveillance or interrogating employees with respect to their interest in or organizing of a union. If you choose to communicate with employees on this issue it is usually best to do so, at least initially, in writing to all employees, so that employees have the opportunity to think  about it without pressure and so that later there can be no claims that you threatened, intimidated or made promises for employees not to unionize, or interrogated employees about their interest in a union.

You are allowed to inform your employees of this change in New Hampshire law, to tell them that, if they are asked to sign a union authorization card/form, you strongly encourage that, before they sign, they ask all questions they have and get any information they need from you and the union that is asking them to sign the card so that they can make the best decision for themselves on whether or not they want union representation. And, that, if they have signed a union card anytime within the last six months and they don't want the union to be empowered to represent them without an election, that they notify the union in writing that they are withdrawing their authorization.

You can tell employees that whether or not they want to be represented by a union is strictly up to them and that you respect and will honor whatever decision they may make on this issue. But, that you want them to have the facts about what signing a union card could mean for them so that they can make their own decision on whether or not they want to sign a union card/form.

In addition, because whatever communication you send out on this now may be the only opportunity you will have to communicate with your employees about this issue before they are approached by a co-worker or an outside union organizer asking that they sign a union authorization card/form, you may also want to give them information on what a union can and can't do for them. Such topics that the law generally allows an employer to inform its employees include that:

• A union can't guarantee that there will be any change in their pay, benefits or any other working condition. Union representation only means that the union can ask the employer to make changes.

• Today, each and every employee can make their own requests for things they want or need. But, if represented by a union you probably won't be able to ask us yourself to make any changes to your pay, benefits or other working conditions. Usually, when a union represents employees the employees must ask the union to make all such requests. And, usually union's request things that a majority of employees want, but that may or may not be what you want or need.

• All that a union can do is promise that they will ask for something, they cannot promise results. In the end whether or not employees are represented by a union your pay, benefits and other working conditions will be decided by the State/County/City/Town.

• We know of no union that doesn't charge monthly dues and fees. Union's set their own dues and fees, and you need to ask a union what it will charge you.

• A union's dues and fees are usually used to pay both the union's local and national officials' salaries, to run the union's state and national offices and to recruit new members. Only you can balance the cost of union dues and fees against any benefits you believe you might get from union representation.

• New Hampshire law excludes from subjects that a public employer must bargain with a union programs and methods of the employer, including the use of technology, the employer's management and supervisory structure and who it hires.

• Unfortunately, it's often not easy for employees to end union representation if they are unhappy with it. Once a union is elected it does not have to leave and stop collecting dues and fees from employees just because employees ask it to. In most cases if a union is elected it can only be removed by an election process. Employees unhappy with a union must by themselves find out how and when they could try to get the union removed.  So you should be sure of what you want before you sign a union authorization card/form.

The above issues are generally of concern to employees considering whether or not they are interested in having union representation. But, concerns of employees at every work site are different and if you decide to communicate with your employees on the issue of unionizing you should carefully consider what issues in your workplace are of most concern to your employees and address those topics with them.

* Anne Scheer is admitted in New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

Return to top of page

Return to Employment Law Articles
Return to Firm Publications