Day 137 - 19 Jun 95 - Page 04


     
     1        appropriate unit ---
     2
     3   Q.   We will come back to appropriate unit in a moment.
     4        A.  -- before they can file the petition -- in order for
     5        the NLRB to be willing to receive this petition to start
     6        the process leading to an election, signed authorisation
     7        cards need to be attached to the petition.  Then the
     8        National Labour Relation Board gets a list of employees
     9        from the employer and checks off whether or not there is at
    10        least 30 per cent of the employees have signed these
    11        authorisation cards.
    12
    13   Q.   Explain what is meant by a "unit"?
    14        A.  A unit is when the NLRB takes a look at whether or not
    15        an election should take place; they try to determine the
    16        scope of the number of employees and in what locations of a
    17        particular employer should be involved.  They go through an
    18        administrative process, often at times a hearing process,
    19        to determine whether it should be one location, if an
    20        employer has one location, it should be two locations, it
    21        should be three locations.
    22
    23        The government is looking at the rights of the employees
    24        and the community of interest that all employees would have
    25        in the proceeding.
    26
    27   Q.   Pause there.  We are going to come to a specific example of
    28        this later on, but suppose that a McDonald's licensee in
    29        the United States has not one but, let us say, six
    30        restaurants?
    31        A.  Yes.
    32
    33   Q.   The employees in one of those six restaurants shows signs
    34        of wanting to be organised, if I can use the American term,
    35        what would happen in such a case before the union could be
    36        recognised?
    37        A.  OK.  If you want me to go through the whole process,
    38        the union would obtain signatures from the unit they think
    39        is appropriate, if you will.  That might be, they may
    40        contend that is one location, and they would obtain the
    41        signatures from that location 30 per cent, they would file
    42        their petition.  Then it is the obligation of the National
    43        Labour Relations Board to determine whether or not, in the
    44        example that you used, whether or not the appropriate unit
    45        would be one location or would be all six locations or it
    46        could be something less than six.
    47
    48   Q.   This could be a contested hearing, could it, before the
    49        Board?
    50        A.  Yes, by the rules of the National Labour Relations 
    51        Board -- these are non-adversarial proceedings -- employers 
    52        are called upon to provide evidence and information and the 
    53        union does the same.  Then the NLRB hearing officer,
    54        administrative law judge, then writes a report that goes
    55        all the way up the line of the regional office of the
    56        National Labour Relations Board before a decision is
    57        rendered.
    58
    59   Q.   In the example we have raised, suppose that in that case
    60        the National Labour Relations Board said:  "Well, no, one

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