H.R. 2241 — Secret Ballot Protection Act

This section states congressional findings recognizing (1) the United States' longstanding recognition of secret ballot elections; (2) secret ballots as the only method ensuring employees' choice free of coercion, intimidation, irregularity, or illegality; (3) private agreements for labor organization recognition as a threat to employees' rights under the National Labor Relations Act; and (4) secret ballot elections as important to the national economy.

This section amends the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) to require that employer recognition of a labor union as exclusive bargaining representative, and related collective bargaining, occur only after a majority of employees in an appropriate unit select the union in a secret ballot election conducted by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).(1) It revises NLRA Section 8(a)(2) (29 U.S.C. 158(a)(2)) to make it an unfair labor practice for an employer to recognize or bargain with a union lacking such an election;(2) it adds NLRA Section 8(b)(8) to make it an unfair labor practice for a union to cause or attempt to cause an employer to recognize or bargain with a union lacking such an election;(3) it amends NLRA Section 9(a) to require secret ballot elections for both initial union certification and decertification;(4) it makes conforming changes to NLRB election petition procedures in Section 9(c)(1).(The amendments do not apply to collective bargaining relationships recognized before enactment of this Act. Thus, they effectively eliminate voluntary recognition of unions based on authorization cards (i.e., "card check") in favor of NLRB-supervised secret ballot elections.)

This section directs the National Labor Relations Board to review and revise, not later than six months after enactment, all regulations promulgated before enactment to implement amendments made by this Act to the National Labor Relations Act.