‘We just got some great news, but Jeff Bezos is going to HATE this.”

The president of the Amazon Labor Union (ALU) wrote that on Aug. 28 — almost one year and five months after Amazon workers in a Staten Island warehouse voted to form the first union at the giant retailer — a vote that NPR called “a stunning win for a grassroots campaign.” Despite that historic vote, Amazon has still not held any contract negotiations.

“The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) just issued major new regulations around union-busting, and they’re a major win for workers,” the ALU added. “The new rule states that if companies commit unfair labor practices prior to a union election, the election will be canceled and the NLRB will order the employer to immediately recognize and bargain with the union.”

The ALU called the new regulations “a literal game-changer. All of the union-busting we’ve been dealing with at fulfillment centers — inconsistent disciplinary actions against employees, captive audience meetings, unjust firings — are going to be a thing of the past under this new ruling.”

The new decision will affect workers trying to form a union at retailers — not only at Starbucks, Trader Joe’s, Aldi’s, Walmart and Home Depot — but also in other industries including social services, nursing, hospitals, long-term care facilities, machinists, gig workers, haulers, etc. American workers everywhere.

Within hours after the NLRB released its 121-page decision in a case titled “Cemex Construction Materials,” The American Prospect, a group that discusses public policy from a progressive perspective, said the ruling meant “that when a majority of a company’s employees file union affiliation cards, the employer can either voluntarily recognize their union or, if not, ask the Board to run a union recognition election.” If the employer commits an unfair labor practice during the election period, like firing pro-union workers, the NLRB will order the employer to recognize the union and enter into bargaining.

The NLRB has also just issued new rules that will make union representation elections happen faster, preventing employers from delaying them as long as possible. “Taken together,” The American Prospect concluded, “this one-two punch effectively makes union organizing possible again, after decades in which unpunished employer illegality was the most decisive factor in reducing the nation’s rate of private-sector unionization from roughly 35% to the bare 6% at which it stands today.”

The NLRB, in its own press release, stated that the new rules will give employees a strengthened “right to bargain through their chosen representative, while acknowledging that employers have the option to invoke the statutory provision allowing them to pursue a Board election. When employers pursue this option, the new standard will promote a fair election environment by more effectively disincentivizing employers from committing unfair labor practices.”

Union activists have argued for almost 90 years that American courts have weakened their collective bargaining rights since the creation of the 1935 National Labor Relations Act. Democratic presidents, even those who controlled both houses of Congress, were unable to revive collective bargaining rights. Now the Biden NLRB has created a sea change for worker’s rights.

The new rules, however, still don’t prevent an employer from dragging its feet to approve an actual contract. That’s why the Amazon Labor Union has been unable to get to the bargaining table since its April 1, 2022 election. Labor activists have suggested that if an employer like Amazon or Starbucks refuses to come to the table, an NLRB arbitrator should be empowered to impose an agreement after a specified period of time.

Dozens of powerful legal firms specializing in protecting employers from labor organizers have demonized the new NLRB decision. One law firm warned its clients that “these changes radically shift the legal landscape for companies addressing demands for recognition and organizing campaigns and require significant, proactive approaches now to address the new reality for how unions will organize and win certifications going forward.”

A union, they say, can demand recognition based on a claim of majority support, which the employer must immediately grant recognition without any election, or file its own NLRB petition seeking an election. “The employer must prove that the union did not have majority support or that the claimed bargaining unit was inappropriate.”

One thing seems inevitable: These “dramatic changes” in workers’ rights to organize will provoke years of costly and dilatory legal challenges from those employers who have exploited their workforce for several generations, and have gotten used to controlling disorganized employees, who assume that living wages are just an impossible dream.

Al Norman of Greenfield worked in the elder home care field in Massachusetts for more than three decades. He writes a regular column for the Recorder.