LABOR LAW-LABOR-MANAGEMENT RELATIONS ACT-EFFECT OF AFFIRMATIVE DEAUTHORIZATION VOTE UPON EXISTING UNION-SHOP CONTRACT

One month after the employer and the union entered into a two-year contract containing a union-shop provision, a group of employees filed a petition under section 9(e)(1) of the NLRA as amended in 1951 seeking an election to rescind the union's authority to make a union-shop agreement. The union argued (1) that the contract was a bar to the election and (2) that even if an immediate election was ordered and an affirmative deauthorization vote cast, the existing union-shop clause should be held effective during the remainder of the contract term. The Board ruled, 3/2, that section 9(e)(1) as amended in 1951 specifically contemplated immediate union-shop deauthorization elections and therefore normal contract bar principles did not apply, and further that if an affirmative deauthorization vote was cast, the union-shop clause would be immediately rescinded. Members Murdock and Styles dissented.

Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Co., 100 N.L.R.B. No. 251 (1952).