Employees at The Quartz Corp’s Spruce Pine mining operation are challenging a federal labor board policy they say is preventing them from voting to remove a union they no longer support..Workers filed a petition in late 2025 seeking a decertification election to remove the United Mine Workers of America as their bargaining representative. The petition included enough employee signatures to trigger a vote under federal labor law.
NLRB Region 10 blocked the election after union officials filed multiple unfair labor practice charges against the company, placing the vote on hold under the board’s “blocking charge” policy. The rule allows elections to be delayed based on alleged employer misconduct, even before claims are resolved.
Employee Blake Davis has filed a Request for Review with the NLRB in Washington, D.C., asking the full board to reverse the decision and reconsider the policy.
His filing argues the policy conflicts with the National Labor Relations Act, which requires secret-ballot elections when a valid question of representation exists. None of the union’s allegations have been adjudicated, and the filing says some are unrelated to employees’ effort to remove the union.
Critics contend the policy incentivizes unions to delay votes they may lose by filing charges.
North Carolina’s right-to-work law prevents workers from being forced to fund unions but does not end a union’s bargaining authority, making decertification the only way to remove representation.
The NLRB has not yet ruled on the request, and its decision could shape decertification cases nationwide.