Union Wins Representation Vote in Atlanta Area

In a reminder to Georgia employers not to take the state’s typically low unionization rates for granted, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports that a union has won the right to represent workers at an Atlanta-area logistics and distribution center. The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union won the representation election 49-46 at a Nestlé facility in McDonough, Georgia. While the overall unionization rate in the private sector in Georgia is very low (around 3 percent), Bloomberg BNA recently reported that unions prevailed in nearly 72 percent of representation elections nationally in 2016, the highest union win rate in recent history. The union win rate in the Southeast region was only slightly less, at nearly 70 percent. The increase in union election win percentage may be linked to the NLRB instituting “quickie” election rules in 2015, which greatly reduced the amount of time an employer has to educate employees after an election petition is filed.

• RELATED TOPICS
• Georgia
• quickie election rules
• representation elections
• Unionization