Let Workers Vote: North Carolina Miners Show the Real Harm of NLRB Blocking Charges

When a union stops serving the workers it claims to represent, employees should be able to vote it out — promptly, by secret ballot, and without procedural roadblocks. That principle sits at the heart of the National Labor Relations Act. Yet under a Biden-era National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) policy, that worker-first framework was abandoned in favor of rules that empower unions to override employee choice.

Workers at a western North Carolina mining operationare now challenging that reality head-on.

After gathering the required signatures to hold a decertification election, their vote was put “in abeyance” — not because wrongdoing had been proven, but because union officials filed a series of unfair labor practice (ULP) charges. Under the Board’s current “blocking charge” policy, the mere filing of allegations can delay or halt an election indefinitely, even when those claims remain unadjudicated.

This case illustrates the predictable and well-documented consequences of the Biden-era blocking charge framework. When unions fear they may lose a decertification vote, the policy incentivizes strategic filings that delay elections for months or years while litigation drags on. Workers remain bound to representation they may no longer support, workplaces operate under prolonged uncertainty, and the statutory right to a secret-ballot election becomes conditional rather than guaranteed.

That outcome is not accidental — it reflects a deliberate policy choice.

In 2020, under President Trump, the NLRB adopted the Election Protection Rule, which generally allowed elections to proceed even when related ULP charges were pending. Ballots could be impounded and counted later, or results set aside if evidence showed misconduct. That approach balanced two core principles of the NLRA: timely employee choice and meaningful remedies. It ensured allegations were taken seriously without allowing unproven claims to silence workers altogether.

The Biden administration’s NLRB rescinded that rule in 2022, restoring broad discretion for regional offices to block elections outright. The result has been a system that does not serve paychecks, safety, or workplace stability — it serves union leadership at the expense of workers.

The North Carolina miners are not asking for special treatment. They are asking the NLRB to correct a policy that has systematically tilted the balance away from employee free choice and toward union control.

CPAW calls on the Board to reverse the Biden-era blocking charge policy and reinstate an election process that prioritizes timely, secret-ballot votes while preserving meaningful remedies for actual misconduct. That approach aligns with the text and purpose of the NLRA, protects due process, and ensures that unproven allegations cannot be used to silence workers indefinitely.

With a quorum restored, the Board has an opportunity (and responsibility) to fix a policy that has failed America’s workers. It should begin by letting them vote.