A new framework for unionizations means that a company must voluntarily recognize a union or demand an election—and can no longer interfere with the election.

The National Labor Relations Board issued a ruling on Friday that changes the framework for unionizations, making it easier for workers to organize and harder for companies to fight back against them. 

The new process comes as part of a decision in the case between Cemex Construction Materials Pacific, LLC and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, where the Board found that the employer had committed over 20 “instances of objectionable or unlawful misconduct” between the filing of the union election petition and the election itself, intending to dissuade workers from organizing. 

The decision requires that if a majority of workers ask a company for voluntary recognition of their union, the company must either immediately recognize them or promptly file a petition asking the Board to hold a union election. 

“However, if an employer who seeks an election commits any unfair labor practice that would require setting aside the election, the petition will be dismissed, and—rather than re-running the election—the Board will order the employer to recognize and bargain with the union,” an NLRB press release stated. If the company neither recognizes the union nor files a petition, the Board will issue a bargaining order forcing the company to come to the table. 

“This is a very important ruling that will help workers to be able to unionize free of coercion, especially at companies like Trader Joe’s, Starbucks and Amazon,” said Seth Goldstein, a partner at Julien, Mirer, Singla and Goldstein, who has represented workers at those companies attempting to unionize and facing union-busting efforts. “This has been the law of the land for 80 years, so it really goes back to what should have been all along.” 

Goldstein was referring to a 1949 Supreme Court decision known as Joy Silk, which stated that an employer had to voluntarily recognize and bargain with a majority of workers who wanted a union, and could only contest the unionization if it had “good faith doubt” about the union’s majority status. Joy Silk was abandoned in 1969 in favor of giving companies more leverage in the unionization process. 

Read more at Vice