One of the ways for the employees to choose who their representative is to tell their employer they do not want a union. The quickest way is to write a letter to the employer and have that letter signed by a majority of the employees who are affected.

If the letter is marked "confidential" the Employer cannot give it to the Union, and the NLRB cannot give it to the Union.

This letter to the Company is called an employee petition.

Employees who wish to send a petition to their employer must do so strictly voluntarily. The NLRB requires that no supervisor or manager have any contact with the petition that the employees circulate. The management can not offer employees any reward or incentive for signing a petition to get out a union.

If you want to get rid of your union this is what you do.

So how do employees lawfully circulate a petition telling their employer that they do not want a union?
These are two steps that an employee or group of employees must take.

1. On a blank sheet of paper write the following at the top.

"We the below signed employees of <put in the name of the company> do not wish to be represented by <put in name of union>or any other union. Please take the necessary steps to accomplish our request."

Print name        Signature        Social Security Number        Date

2. Once the petition described above has been prepared, an employee or group of employees may circulate this petition, during non-working hours, amongst all the other employees.
You, and employees like you, may ask other employees to sign.
The petition will be kept confidential and will not be given to the union.

If employees do not wish to sign a petition where others can see their signature, you can subsitute individual 3x5 cards with the same wording as the petition and have each card signed by only one employee. Again you need a majority of employees to sign cards if you use this method.

Just write in the name of your employer on the 1^st blank line the name of the union on the 2^nd blank line and circulate the petition amongst employees.Be very careful that no supervisor or manager is ever given the petition until it is completed.

For the petition to work, you must have over one half of all the employee sign the petition.
This means that if there are 100 employees in by the union (100 workers) then at least 51 workers must sign the petition before you give it to management. People who sign do not have to be members of the union but they do need to be paid under the contract or part of a "unit".

If there are 10 workers then at least 6 workers must sign the petition before you give it to management.

Obviously the more workers that sign the petition, the more forceful it is. So, you need to get as many signatures on the petition from workers as you can.

Once you start circulating the petition and asking workers to sign it, you should take no more than three weeks to get the petition signed by all the workers. You can have several copies of the petition being circulated at the same time. Be sure that workers only sign one petition.

No worker should sign the petition twice or sign more than one petition. (One person - one vote)

Once your petition has been completed and is signed by more than half of the workers, one of the workers should deliver the petition in person to a high-ranking management person or the owner of the business. This is a valuable petition so care must be given to make sure it is delivered to a high-level management person.
This is the only time the petition should ever be seen by any supervisor or manager.

Remember, the National Labor Relations Act guarantees employees
the right of self-organizing or the right to refuse same.

• The National Labor Relations Act guarantees employees the right to be free of discrimination or reprisal because they do not support a union or because they do support a union.

• No union and no employer can discriminate against employees because they want to get rid of a union or because they want to have a union.

• Employees are absolutely free to make the choice on their own.

• Any employee who believes that they have been discriminated against or who has been the subject or reprisals either by a union or by an employer should report that discrimination to the National Labor Relations Board. That web page will give you phone numbers for contacting the National Labor Relations Board if you have a complaint against a union or employer.

Law Cases that have ruled that employees have the right to give a letter (petition) to their employer (company) include:

- Henry Mayer v. National Labor Relations Board (196 Fed 2^nd 286)."Where a union has been certified by the Board it is not unlawful for an employer to break off bargaining with a union after being presented with a letter voluntarily signed by a majority of employees stating that they do not wish to be represented by the recognized union or any other union."

- Vulvan Forging Co. v. NLRB (188 Fed 2^nd 927)."It would clearly be contrary to the express purpose of the Act to require the employees to bargain through a representative that practically all of them had repudiated. They are entitled to law to bargain collectively through a representative of their own choosing. To force them to bargain through a representative which they had repudiated would be depriving them of their right to bargain through the representative of their choice."

- AUCIELLO Iron Works, Inc. and Shopmen's Local Union #501 Case 1-CA-25969:"An Employer may rebut the presumption of majority status by establishing either (1) that at the time of the refusal to bargain a majority of employees did not, in fact, support the union, or (2) that the refusal was predicated on a good faith and reasonably grounded doubt, supported by objective considerations, of the union's majority status."

- Burgerpitz, Inc. (785 Fed 2^nd 796);and ALCON Fabricators and UAW; Case 8-CA-26240; The Freeman Company Case No. 18-CA-2959; A&P Ironworks, Inc. 179 NLRB No. 50; United Welding Co. (1947) 72 NLRB 954

The next page is a printable page.
You can print the next page, fill in the name of your employer and the name of the union then make copies as needed. Once you have the petition you are on your way to be free of the union. You can print all of this if you wish to but, the petition is what you need to have to get started on ousting the union.

Click Here to go to a separate copy of this form, formatted for you to print out and use.