Bronfenbrenner Testifying

Kate Bronfenbrenner will make the case for streamlining the union certification process during National Labor Relations Board testimony Tuesday.

Bronfenbrenner's testimony is scheduled to begin at 3:30 p.m. in the board's headquarters in Washington, D.C.

The board is holding hearings Monday and Tuesday to collect information about proposed rule changes governing the time frame between the date employees file to form a union and the actual union vote.

Director of ILR's Office of Labor Education Research, Bronfenbrenner is among 62 people from industry, labor and academia who are scheduled to testify on proposed changes.

She plans to provide information from research she conducted with Dorian Warren of Columbia University about employer harassment of workers during the time between filing to form a union and the worker unionization vote.

"The Empirical Case for Streamlining the NLRB Certification Process: The Role of Date of Unfair Labor Practice Occurrence" concludes that streamlining the union certification process will reduce employee harassment, interrogation, threats and retaliation.

The study supports shortening the time between filing a petition for unionization and the date when employees vote. That time period currently averages 56 days.

The study is available at http://iserp.columbia.edu.

"This cumulative effect of constant, pervasive and intense violations by employers undermines workers' rights under the current lengthy NLRB election process," Bronfenbrenner said in an interview.

Warren, her co-author, is an assistant professor in Columbia's Department of Political Science and School of International and Public Affairs.