## Facts

- Dana Corporation and Metaldyne Corporation entered neutrality/card-check agreements with the United Auto Workers (UAW), promising to recognize the union upon proof of majority support via authorization cards.
- Each employer voluntarily recognized the UAW as the Section 9(a) bargaining representative based on card majorities.
- Within 45 days of recognition, employees filed petitions seeking to remove or replace the union:
  - At Metaldyne, employees filed a decertification petition supported by more than 50% of the unit.
  - At Dana, employees filed a decertification petition supported by about 35% of the unit.
- Regional Directors dismissed the petitions under then-prevailing “recognition bar” doctrine, which treated voluntary recognition as immediately barring election petitions for a reasonable period to permit bargaining.
- Employees sought Board review, urging reconsideration of the recognition bar when recognition is based on authorization cards rather than a Board-conducted election.
- The NLRB consolidated the matters to reexamine and modify the recognition-bar doctrine.

## Issues

1. Whether voluntary recognition based on authorization cards should immediately and automatically bar decertification or rival-union petitions for a reasonable bargaining period.
2. Whether employees must be given a defined post-recognition opportunity, with notice, to request a Board-conducted secret-ballot election testing the union’s majority status.
3. What procedures should govern the timing and effect of election petitions following voluntary recognition.

## Decision

- The NLRB modified (rather than abolished) the recognition-bar doctrine for voluntary recognitions based on authorization cards.
- Voluntary recognition would not create an immediate bar; instead, a bar would arise only after employees receive notice and a 45-day petition period expires without a valid petition.
- The employer or union must notify the NLRB of the voluntary recognition, triggering issuance of an official NLRB notice that the employer must post for 45 days.
- A valid decertification or rival-representation petition filed within the 45-day window must be processed and an election held.
- If no valid petition is filed within 45 days of notice posting, the union’s majority status becomes irrebuttably presumed for a reasonable period of bargaining, and the usual recognition bar applies.
- Applying the new framework to these consolidated cases, the Board directed that the employees’ timely filed petitions would be processed rather than dismissed.

## Legal Principles

- Voluntary recognition under Section 9(a) may create a recognition bar only after employees are given notice and a limited opportunity to invoke the Board’s election procedures.
- A Board-issued notice must inform employees of the voluntary recognition and their right to file a decertification or rival-representation petition within 45 days of posting.
- Authorization cards are not treated as the functional equivalent of a Board-supervised secret-ballot election for purposes of immediately foreclosing election petitions.
- The NLRA’s policy favoring stability in bargaining relationships must be balanced against protecting employee choice through access to a secret-ballot election promptly after card-based recognition.
- After the 45-day period expires without a valid petition, the union is entitled to an irrebuttable presumption of majority support for a reasonable bargaining period, barring election petitions during that time.

## Conclusion

The NLRB held that card-based voluntary recognition does not automatically block employees from seeking a decertification or rival-union election; instead, employees must receive Board notice and a 45-day window to file a petition, after which a recognition bar applies for a reasonable period of bargaining if no timely petition is filed.


Dana Corp., 351 N.L.R.B. 434 (2007)