NLRB majority finds Regional Director wrongly rubber-stamped gambit by SEIU and employer to destroy ballots in vote to remove union

Welch, WV (September 3, 2026) – The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in Washington, D.C., has just reversed an NLRB Region 9 official’s decision to dismiss a petition filed by McDowell County Commission on Aging employee John Reeves seeking to remove Service Employees International Union (SEIU) District 1199 officials from his workplace. Reeves received free legal aid from National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation staff attorneys throughout the proceedings.

In its decision, Board Chairman James Murphy and Member Scott Mayer ruled that the Region 9 Director erred by dismissing Reeves’ decertification petition and refusing to count the ballots from a decertification election held in July 2024. The Board majority found that the Regional Director had simply repeated unproven, settled unfair labor practice allegations against the Commission as the stated basis for dismissal, without making any independent finding, as required by precedent, that Reeves’ petition was actually tainted by direct employer involvement.

Region Greenlit Employer and SEIU Bosses’ Collusive Deal to Block Workers from Voting Out Union

Reeves filed his decertification petition in June 2024 after the Commission’s contract with the SEIU expired. All parties, including the SEIU, agreed to hold a decertification election, which took place on July 9, 2024. However, NLRB Region 9 officials impounded the ballots without counting them, citing blocking charges the SEIU had filed at the last minute against the Commission.

On the final day before NLRB rules at the time mandated that the votes be counted, the Region rushed out a complaint based on the union’s charges to block the count. Later, the Region approved a “settlement” between the company and the union of the unfair labor practice charges. Notably, the settlement contained no admission of wrongdoing by the employer, yet it included a provision that the employees’ decertification petition would be dismissed and further decertification petitions would be blocked.

Reeves was not a party to that settlement, even though his legal rights under the National Labor Relations Act were abrogated by the union-employer agreement. Reeves had previously attempted to intervene in the blocking charge case, only for the Region to deny his participation despite its likely impact on his decertification effort. The Region nonetheless cited the settled, unproven allegations as grounds to toss out his petition and the ballots the employees had cast.

Soon after, in March 2025, Foundation staff attorneys asked the Board in Washington to review and reverse that dismissal, arguing the Region had no lawful basis to scrap a decertification vote based on allegations the employer never admitted and the Board never proved. That Request for Review noted that the Region has ignored longstanding precedent in its rush to protect incumbent SEIU union officials from being removed by the votes of a majority of employees.

Board Majority: Region Ignored Longstanding Law to Disenfranchise Employees

Citing the NLRB’s decisions in TruServ Corp., the Board majority held that a settlement lacking an admission of liability cannot, standing alone, justify dismissing a decertification petition. The majority further found that the Regional Director’s dismissal letter did nothing more than recite the settled complaint’s allegations, without the kind of independent administrative finding of direct employer instigation or solicitation that Board precedent requires before a petition can be thrown out. The Board granted review, reversed the dismissal, and ordered the ballots opened and counted.

Ultimately the ruling arrives too late to affect Reeves personally, as he and his coworkers took separate action to free themselves from SEIU 1199 with a majority-backed petition in November 2025. However, the case is just the latest example of union lawyers abusing NLRB rules and exploiting sympathetic regional officials to keep workers trapped in union ranks over the objection of a majority of employees.

“Mr. Reeves and his coworkers ultimately succeeded in freeing themselves from SEIU control through their own efforts, but far too many other workers are stuck under so-called ‘representation’ they oppose because the decertification process is subject to exactly this kind of bureaucratic manipulation and delay,” commented National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “This case is a textbook illustration of why the Foundation’s pending rulemaking petition is necessary to end the various non-statutory barriers employees face when it comes to holding decertification elections and having their votes promptly counted.”

The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation is a nonprofit, charitable organization providing free legal aid to employees whose human or civil rights have been violated by compulsory unionism abuses. The Foundation, which can be contacted toll-free at 1-800-336-3600, assists thousands of employees in about 200 cases nationwide per year.