Boeing Begins Educating Its South Carolina Employees On NLRB Election Process

Following the International Association of Machinists’ petition to the National Labor Relations Board to hold an election at Boeing’s manufacturing plant in South Carolina, the company has begun educating its employees on the NLRB’s election process.

On its WeAreBoeingSC website, Boeing posted a video about the NLRB election process for the employees the Machinists union is targeting, spelling out some of the details about the importance of voting.

For example, in Right-to-Work states, as South Carolina is, employees are often under the impression that, if they don’t vote, it won’t matter to them personally.

However, because unions have “exclusive representation” rights over all employees in a bargaining unit, even if employees do not vote, the union becomes their bargaining representative—even if the employees who didn’t vote never wanted the union.

As Boeing explains [emphasis added]:

The election will be decided by a majority of employees who actually vote, not a majority of eligible voters. If a majority of the voters were to vote “yes,” the union would become the “exclusive representative” of all employees in the group targeted by the union.

For example: If there are 3,000 eligible voters, but only 500 people vote, the union could win exclusive representation rights for ALL eligible employees by getting just 251 votes. A small number of voters can determine your future, and that’s why it is so important to vote!

Anything that has to do with job rights then has to be negotiated between the union and the company.

Nothing is automatic. Employees aren’t guaranteed a pay increase or any changes. Everything has to be negotiated.

Once the union negotiates an agreement, any deal the union makes would apply to all employees whether or not they vote for the union, and whether or not they join the union.

Another point the company’s video highlights is the secrecy of the election process, as well as the “yes” and “no” choices and what they mean (see sample NLRB ballot below).

• Related: Boeing SC Video Responds to Machinists Union Election Filing: ‘They tried to shut us down.’