The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Aug. 7 filed an appeal against the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia’s May 14 decision to overturn the board’s ambush elections rule because it was adopted without the statutorily required quorum of members. 

Under the ambush elections rule the amount of the time between when a union filed a representation petition and an election took place would have been reduced from the current average of 40 days to as few as 17 days.  

The NLRB appeal came only weeks after the district court on July 27 denied a motion by the NLRB to alter the initial judgment. In the July request, the NLRB asked the court to reconsider its ruling citing additional evidence that there was a quorum for the vote. The court called the request, “too little too late,” and noted that the evidence should have been presented during the initial trial but that it likely would not have changed the outcome. 

The original lawsuit was filed by the ABC-led Coalition for a Democratic Workplace in conjunction with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.