The NMB has issued a final ruling on the voting procedures covered by the Railway Labor Act for union representation. The 75-year old rule was changed to give workers a more democratic election process. The old rule counted all votes NOT cast in an election as no votes.
This process was set forth by the NMB originally with the presumption that all employees wanted to be represented by a union and were electing which one would be their representative. The previous rule was a difficult hurdle for workers who wanted to be represented by unions to clear. As more than 50% of the total work force had to vote for representation because all employees that elected not to vote were automatically counted as a NO vote.
The final ruling issued will recognize a union in a workplace when more than 50% of the total votes cast by employees are in favor of union representation. This new ruling will help stop anti-union employers from discouraging their employees to vote in union representation elections. Therefore adding a new level of equity the election process.
This is one of the most important rulings made by the NMB in recent decades.

This is the final ruling as published in the Federal Register