What happened at our launch?

We announced the first step in the workers having an election to be represented by the Union.

How are union elections conducted?

Union elections for private employers are conducted by the National Labor Relations Board, a federal agency that protects the rights of private sector workers to form a union.  Under the structure created by NYS for the CDPAP program, the single fiscal intermediary, PPL is a private employer, not a state employer, so the election will be conducted by the NLRB.

What triggers an election?

The NLRB conducts a secret ballot election when a Union meets submits a “showing of interest” to prove that workers want to have a vote to have a union. A full explanation of the NLRB’s election process can be found on the Board’s website.

What is required of a showing of interest?

A union must submit proof that 30 percent of the workers eligible to vote have signed cards asking for a union election. Detailed rules about how the NLRB processes an election petition can be found in Part Two of the NLRB’s Casehandling Manual covering Representation Proceedings, an exhaustive 300 page document specifying every aspect of the process.

In this case, the union submitted well over 30 percent of cards demonstrating that workers want an election.

How did the Union obtain these cards?

The Union had a team of 45 organizers who called, texted, mailed and door knocked CDPAP workers.  If a worker wanted to join the union, they executed a digital union card and received a confirmation that they had signed the card.  These were the cards that were submitted to the NLRB in accordance with the NLRB’s rules for digital cards.

What happens next?

The NLRB will work with the union and the employer to set the rules and timeline for the conduct of the election.

How will caregivers vote?

In elections where there is not a central place of employment, such as elections involving homecare workers, the practice is often to have the workers vote by mail, given that there is no central place of employment. 

NLRB’ mail ballots elections are conducted in a way to ensure worker confidentiality.  A ballot is mailed to each employee’s home address with an inner envelope that does not disclose the worker’s identity; this ballot is returned inside another envelope that is used to verify it was cast by the worker.

How long does this process take?

The NLRB has rules governing the timing of the election process. The timeline for conducting an election varies widely and largely depends on whether the parties can agree on how the election should be conducted and who is eligible to vote. Typically, mail ballot elections take longer to conduct that in-person elections due to the time needed to mail and return ballots.

How will caregivers know when the vote is?

Once the timeline for the mailing of the ballots is determined, the NLRB will provide official notice and the employer will be required to post the notice in the manner it normally communicates with its employees.

What does it take to win the election?

Under federal law, a union must receive fifty percent plus one of the ballots returned to be certified as the representative of the workers.

How do caregivers get a contract?

Once the Union is recognized, federal law requires that both the employer and the Union bargain in good faith.

What can the Union bargain with PPL about?

Consumers retain the right to hire, fire, and train their PAs.  They also retain the right to determine the hours that PAs work within the hours of care that they have been allotted.

The Union respects and understands that these issues would not be subject to collective bargaining.

The Union can bargain over wages and benefits and the use of wage parity monies in the metropolitan region.

Who decides what we will negotiate over?

A bargaining committee composed of PAs will be democratically elected by members of the bargaining unit.