A new ruling from the Biden administration's National Labor Relations Board will make it much harder for employers to effectively undermine union drives. Via HuffPost:

Last week the federal agency that oversees collective bargaining issued a landmark ruling that experts believe will make it easier for workers to form unions. The decision, known as Cemex, for the building materials company at the heart of the case, creates real consequences for employers who break the law in an effort to keep a union out.

When workers want a union, they typically gather signed cards and file for a secret-ballot election. But under the Cemex standard, when workers demonstrate they have majority support for a union, the onus is on the company to either recognize the union or promptly ask the NLRB to conduct an election to determine if a majority want union representation.

Then, if the company breaks the law in such a way that it warrants throwing the election results out, the board can order the company to recognize the union and start bargaining. There would be no “rerun” election, as there has been until now.

Although it has long been possible for the board to order union-busting companies to bargain even if the union loses a vote, experts say the new system under the Cemex decision makes that outcome more likely ― and therefore discourages employers from breaking the law in the first place.