The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is the federal agency responsible for safeguarding employees’ rights to organize a union and bargain collectively and administering union elections when employers insist on a formal election process. The NLRB is broken into 26 regional offices across the country, and our election is taking place in Region 2.

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) will mail ballots to all of us on Tuesday, July 20. We encourage you to send yours back as soon as you receive it! You must return your ballot so that it is received (not postmarked) by the NLRB by Tuesday, August 17. This should allow plenty of time for us to ask for replacement ballots from the NLRB if any of us have a problem with the mail – contact NLRB agent Avinish Kuma at Avinish.Kuma@nlrb.gov for a replacement ballot by Thursday, July 29.

It is important to note that the NLRB is a federal agency and they will administer this secret ballot election completely independently, using our mailing addresses that have been provided by MSNBC. If you believe the address MSNBC provided may be incorrect or you move at any point between now and the ballot due date, please email Avinish.Kuma@nlrb.gov and CC caikin@wgaeast.org. 

MSNBC’s labor relations team and our union came to an agreement over most of the eligible voters. The vast majority of our staff will be included in the vote count without any dispute from the company. However, there are a few titles and classifications that will need to vote subject to challenge (very similar to casting a provisional ballot) in our election. It was, and remains, our position that Yoh and Staff With End Date employees, as well as employees with the title Senior Booker, Senior Segment Producer, Digital Producer (includes those Producers that primarily or exclusively do digital work that does not end up on the network), social media editor, and off-air legal correspondent should be included in our bargaining unit and should be receiving regular ballots, but MSNBC’s attorneys would not agree to their inclusion. So, our colleagues in these titles and classifications will be able to vote but will have their votes sequestered from the rest of the ballots until a determination about their inclusion can be made by the NLRB. If you’re curious about your eligibility, please reach out to msnbcunion@wgaeast.org, or talk to your organizing committee member!

The NLRB conducts secret ballot elections. MSNBC has agreed with our proposal for a mail ballot election so we can all vote safely. Once ballots are mailed to us on July 20, we will have a window of 9 days (until July 29) to ensure everyone receives a ballot and has time to mail it back to the NLRB. Ballots must be at the NLRB office by August 17 (not postmarked by August 17). They will be counted on August 24. 

It is a secret ballot with two sealed return envelopes to ensure anonymity (disputed voters’ ballots will be sequestered). The return envelope does not need a stamp. Only the NLRB will have access to our ballots and representatives of this independent federal agency will count our ballots. The process will be very similar to an election for public office. 

It is very important that we fill out the ballots correctly. Ballots filled out incorrectly may be thrown out. The Insider Union made a video about how to properly fill out a ballot,

@insiderunionHow to vote YES in Insider’s NLRB election!♬ SUNNY DAY – Matteo Rossanese

and the Hearst Union created a graphic with instructions:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by @hearstunion

Please talk to your organizing committee member so you know how to fill it out.

We all have federally protected rights to advocate for a “Yes” vote leading up to our election and to do so in an environment free from intimidation or interrogation. For more on our rights, please check out this page from the NLRB.

Management can hold more “informational” or “educational” meetings leading up to the election and can advocate for us to vote “No.” However, they can’t make any threats or offer any inducements to change our minds. They can’t interrogate any of us about our support. After July 19, management cannot hold mandatory group meetings about the union. If you have any questionable interactions with management (or their representatives), please reach out to your organizing committee member or email us at msnbcunion@wgaeast.org.

A workplace is “officially” union upon winning union recognition. Union recognition means that the company has a legal obligation to bargain a contract. Most media companies have respected their employees’ democratic right to organize and recognized the union after a neutral third party verifies that a majority of employees signed union authorization cards. In a few cases, media companies insisted on an election and attempted to dissuade people from continuing to organize in the lead up to the vote. For example, employees at Group Nine, Slate, Gimlet Media, and Onion, Inc. won union recognition after an online election.

In our case, MSNBC rejected our request for voluntary recognition and forced a bureaucratic NLRB process, even though over 200 of us demonstrated support for our union by signing a petition. Our union will be officially certified after we win the election.

After winning recognition or voting online or through the NLRB, employees nominate a union bargaining committee that will negotiate a first contract with the company. A union contract is only in effect after being bargained and voted into place by the employees covered by the union.