Chicago, IL
Before May 1992, under Article XX where an AFL-CIO national or international union filed a petition with a labor board to become the exclusive bargaining representative of an appropriate bargaining unit represented by an independent union and the independent then consummated an affiliation with a second AFL-CIO union, it was a violation for the first affiliate to maintain its petition and continue its organizing effort.
In May 1992, the Executive Council Committee on Article XX Review, after extensive consideration of this rule and its effects, concluded that the Article XX law in this regard was sufficiently questionable to justify amending the Executive Council Policy Statements on Article XX Protection for Independent Unions for a one-year trial period. That trial period has been successively extended each year since.
The Council now concludes that this amendment, in revised but substantively identical form, should be permanent. In the Council_s judgment, Article XX should not penalize a union that engages in a bottom-up organizing campaign to the point of filing an election petition by giving preference instead to a subsequent affiliation that may be secured by the independent union, usually substantially for purposes of self-preservation. Accordingly, the Council amends Policy Statement No. 10, as modified by Policy Statement No. 14, by adding after the current paragraph (4) the following:
"(5) Where an independent union or association becomes a local or other subordinate body of an AFL-CIO national or international union through an affiliation that is consummated after one or more other AFL-CIO national or international unions have filed valid representation petitions, or valid interventions on such petitions, covering one or more appropriate bargaining units represented by the independent, it shall not violate Article XX for those unions to complete the representation election process and, if selected as the exclusive bargaining representative, to act as such. Nor shall it violate Article XX for the union that consummated the affiliation to participate in, or to assist the independent in, that process. A union that, prior to filing a petition or intervention, has participated directly or indirectly in any legal proceeding that has the effect of delaying consummation of the affiliation shall not be entitled to the benefits of this provision."