Your Signature
Union Authorization Cards FAQs
Authorization documents can take many forms and generally look harmless. Hard copy cards may resemble a magazine subscription renewal card. Petitions may look like a normal piece of paper often with very small writing outlining the legal obligations that come with signing. Some authorization documents are simply online forms that ask you to click on “I agree.”
Regardless of their appearance, however, a signed authorization card is a legal power of attorney that authorizes a union to act as the collective bargaining agent for you and other employees in negotiations with the employer. The documents also provide the union with personal information, including a home address and telephone number so the union representatives can contact you or visit you at home. The card may ask what department you work in and the type of work you perform. The NLRB requires only a signature and date on authorization cards; it is the union that wants the additional information about you that is requested on a card.
The union can do several things with a signed authorization card/petition/online form.
If the union gets 30 percent of employees in a bargaining unit (employee group) to sign cards, it could go to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and file a petition for an election in which employees vote to determine whether or not they want to be unionized.
If the union collects signatures from more than 50 percent of the employees in an employee group, the union could request that we recognize the union as the employees’ representative without holding a secret ballot election. The union may use your information to send you mail, make calls and texts, or visit you at home.
If the union gets signatures from 30 percent or more of employees in a bargaining unit and files for an election, Protolabs is required by law to turn over to the union personal contact info for ALL employees in the bargaining unit.
Signatures on union authorization documents can be gathered in a number of ways including:
- Going to your home and asking to come in and speak with you
- Online and through texts and emails
- Waiting for you as you leave work
- Approaching you and other employees in Protolabs facilities while at work, in the cafeteria, break areas or in the parking garage
- Through meetings purported to offer professional education credits
- Through sign-in sheets at informational meetings
- Through co-workers who support the union
- Through flyers sent to your home with cards attached
You have the right not to sign an authorization card, petition or online form and to not be pressured or harassed by any union organizer or supporter. If you feel you are being pressured or harassed to sign a union document, you may tell the organizer you are not interested and to leave you alone. You can also report this to your manager or Human Resources.
Signing a union authorization card, petition or online form does not guarantee anything. If a union were to be voted in, the only thing it can do is negotiate on behalf of those it represents. In contract negotiations, you could end up with more, the same, or less than you currently have. No one can predict the outcome of union contract negotiations.
An employee who signs a card and then later changes his or her mind has every right to ask for the card back, and to rescind their authorization of union representation by sending a letter via certified mail to the union’s local office. It is also a good idea to send a copy to the National Labor Relations Board regional office as well, so that they know that the employee has revoked the authorization and requested that the card be returned. An employee also can attempt to revoke the card by asking the person the card was given to, to return it.
ABSOLUTELY NOT! If the union can convince enough employees to sign a union card we may have a secret ballot union election, supervised by the federal government. Every employee who is eligible to vote will be allowed to vote anonymously for or against union representation whether or not you signed a union card.
Organizing Tactics
Fact: Unions make numerous promises but there are no guarantees. Any change would have to be negotiated with and agreed to by the employer. In contract negotiations, you could end up with the same, more, or less than you currently have.
Fact: You can get more information about unions without signing a union authorization card/petition/online form. Information is available from your manager, Human Resources, and on the Internet. Information from the union should also be available without having to sign a legally binding document.
Fact: Signing a union authorization card/petition/online form isn’t about talking to the union. Your signature, and that of other employees, may be giving the union the ability to file a petition for election with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) if they collect enough signatures. Read the small print and do not sign a card if you are not sure that you want a union to represent you.
Fact: You don’t need to sign a union authorization card/petition/online form to vote in an election if there is one. Only the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has the authority to determine which employees are part of the eligible bargaining unit and therefore able to vote in any election that may occur.
Fact: It’s not that easy. Removing a union is a very difficult process once it is in place. Once the union is voted in, they are in place for a one-year minimum even without a contract. After the first year, if employees want to get the union out, they would have to gather enough signatures to file a decertification petition with the NLRB. However, if the Union has negotiated a contract in the meantime, that contract blocks any decertification petition until shortly before it expires (or for three years, whichever is sooner). Whenever employees get one of these opportunities to decertify, employees would be responsible for initiating and organizing this effort on their own and, according to the law, Protolabs could not assist.
Fact: If everyone else had signed, the organizer wouldn’t need your signature. He or she would already have enough signatures to petition the NLRB for an election or to approach the organization for voluntary recognition. The decision to sign – or not – is a personal one and should be based strictly on your own desire to be represented by a union, not on what the union says other employees have done.
