## Facts

- The Illinois Fraternal Order of Police Labor Council (union) sought to represent a bargaining unit of about 30 probation officers employed by the Chief Judge’s Department of Court Services for Illinois’s 11th Judicial Circuit (employer).
- A representation election was authorized, and the employer was directed (on November 9, 2000) to provide the union, within seven days, a list of the eligible voters’ names and home addresses.
- On November 20, 2000, the employer sent the voter list to the Illinois Labor Relations Board, but did not provide the list to the union.
- On December 4, 2000, the union’s attorney notified the employer that the union had not received the voter list.
- On December 6, 2000—one day before the scheduled election—the employer’s attorney provided the list to the union and offered to postpone the election by one week; the union declined the postponement.
- The election proceeded on December 7, 2000, and the union lost by a close vote of 15 to 13.
- The union filed post-election objections, arguing that the employer’s late delivery of the voter list denied it a fair opportunity to communicate with eligible voters before balloting.
- An administrative law judge overruled the objections, finding the union’s delay in requesting the list showed indifference to receiving it and concluding the union was not prejudiced.
- The union appealed to the Illinois Labor Relations Board, State Panel.

## Issues

1. Whether the employer’s failure to timely provide the union with the eligible-voter list of names and home addresses constituted objectionable conduct requiring the election to be set aside.
2. Whether the union’s failure to demand the list earlier, and its refusal of the employer’s offer to postpone the election, defeated the union’s claim that the late list affected election fairness.
3. Whether, in a closely decided election, receiving the list only one day before the vote could reasonably be found to have impaired employees’ ability to make a free and informed choice.

## Decision

- The Illinois Labor Relations Board, State Panel, sustained the union’s objections.
- The Board rejected the administrative law judge’s conclusion that the union’s conduct (waiting to request the list and declining a postponement) eliminated the effect of the employer’s untimely compliance.
- The Board found that providing the required voter list only one day before a close election was objectionable because it materially limited the union’s ability to contact eligible voters during the pre-election period.
- The Board set aside the election results and directed that a new election be conducted.

## Legal Principles

- In an ILRB-conducted representation election, the public employer has an affirmative duty to timely provide the petitioning labor organization with the names and home addresses of employees eligible to vote, as required by statute and Board rules.
- A material delay in providing the voter list may warrant setting aside an election when the delay would likely interfere with fair election conditions by restricting campaign communications to eligible voters.
- A showing of improper motive is not required; the focus is the probable effect of the employer’s noncompliance on election conditions and employee free choice.
- The union is not required to cure the employer’s pre-election violation by accepting a last-minute postponement, and the employer remains responsible for meeting the ordered deadline.
- The closeness of the vote may support a finding that the violation could reasonably have affected the outcome.

## Conclusion

In Chief Judge of the 11th Judicial Circuit v. Illinois Fraternal Order of Police Labor Council, the ILRB State Panel set aside a narrow election loss after concluding that the employer’s failure to timely give the union the required list of eligible voters’ names and addresses—delivered only one day before the vote—compromised fair election conditions and warranted a rerun election.


Chief Judge of the 11th Judicial Circuit v. Illinois Fraternal Order of Police Labor Council, 18 P.E.R. Ill. 2074 (2002)