WASHINGTON (AP) -- Labor regulators are trying once again to streamline the process in which workers decide whether to join labor unions.
The National Labor Relations Board proposed rules Wednesday that would allow unions to hold workplace elections more quickly. That could make it easier for unions to organize and help them reverse decades of steep membership declines.
The board approved similar rules more than two years ago, but business groups challenged them in court and a federal judge ruled that board members had failed to follow proper voting procedures.
The NLRB was at the center of a bitter political dispute last year as Senate Republicans blocked President Barack Obama from appointing new board members. Republicans ended delaying tactics last summer in a deal that allowed Obama to fill all five board seats.
