01/02/2026: Election Over Deauthorizing Dues Scheduled for MOM's Organic Market
GC issues an OM memo outlining all of the pre-election hearing dates for the year.
OM 26-02 Dates for Hearings and Statement of Position Due Dates, OM 26-02, (OM Memo)
The NLRB’s Office of General Counsel has issued an internal memorandum providing Regional Directors with a comprehensive scheduling table for representation case hearings throughout 2026. The document clarifies procedural requirements under the Board’s expedited election rules.
Under Section 102.63(a) of the Board’s Rules and Regulations, pre-election hearings in representation cases (RC, RD, and RM petitions) must be scheduled for eight business days after service of the Notice of Representation Hearing, excluding federal holidays. When the eighth day falls on a weekend or federal holiday, the hearing is automatically moved to the next business day. This expedited timeline applies to all cases except those presenting unusually complex issues.
Section 102.63(b) requires parties to file their Statement of Position by noon on the business day immediately before the hearing opens. Regional Directors retain discretion to set earlier filing deadlines when hearings are scheduled beyond the standard eight-day window.
The memorandum’s attached table maps out specific hearing dates and Statement of Position deadlines for every possible service date from January 1, 2026 through December 31, 2026. This calendar accounts for all federal holidays during the year, including Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. The table demonstrates how the eight-day calculation adjusts around holiday periods—for example, notices served on Friday, January 9, 2026 result in hearings on Tuesday, January 20, 2026 (accounting for the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday on January 19).
The guidance emphasizes that the triggering date for calculating hearing schedules is the service date of the Notice of Representation Hearing, which may occur after the petition filing date. This distinction matters for determining compliance with the expedited timeline requirements.
MOM's Organic Market, Inc., 05-UD-377341 (Regional Election Decision)
The NLRB’s Region 05 has directed a union deauthorization election at a Maryland grocery store to determine whether employees wish to revoke their union’s authority to require mandatory union payments as a condition of employment.
Regional Director Sean Marshall ordered the secret ballot election for employees at MOM’s Organic Market in College Park, Maryland, following an administrative investigation that confirmed the existence of a collective bargaining agreement between the employer and United Food and Commercial Workers Local 400 containing a valid union security clause. The agreement, effective from November 2025 through November 2028, currently permits the union to require employees to make certain dues payments to maintain their employment.
Under Section 9(e)(1) of the NLRA, employees may petition to withdraw a union’s authority to enforce such union security provisions. The deauthorization election does not decertify the union as the employees’ bargaining representative but specifically addresses whether the union may continue requiring dues payments as a condition of employment.
If the majority of the employees vote to deauthorize union dues, this will effective turn their workplace into a right-to-work workplace where individuals can opt in or out of union dues.