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In a pair of 3-1 decisions made public today, the National Labor Relations Board overruled two George W. Bush-era decisions that address the protections provided by federal labor law for new collective-bargaining relationships between unions and employers.

The first decision adds a mandatory six months to a year that employees must wait after an employer voluntarily recognizes as a union before the employees can challenge the union status. This was the rule until 2007, when the board ruled to allow immediate challenges to union’s statuses by 30 percent of employees or a rival union.

The other decision focused on the period following a change of ownership of a company with a unionized workforce. It overrules a 2002 board decision, which created an immediate window after the sale or merger for the union’s status to be challenged by 30 percent of employees, the new employer or a rival union. There now must be the same six-month to a year time frame before such a status can be challenged.

鈥淎 bargaining relationship once rightfully established must be permitted to exist and function for a reasonable period in which it can be given a fair chance to succeed,鈥� wrote the majority, which includes Wilma Liebman, Craig Becker and Mark Gaston.

But while the board decided that a reasonable time must be given before employees can challenge such statuses, the Associate Builders and Contractors believes the decision is an example of the board pandering to unions.

鈥淭hese decisions are clearly intended as payoffs to big labor,鈥� said ABC Vice President of Federal Affairs Geoff Burr in a statement on the decisions. 鈥淭he majority members of the (NLRB) are misusing their powers and have turned the agency from a neutral arbiter of labor law disputes into a political activist organization.

鈥淭his is yet another example of the Obama administration trying to implement anti-business policies that they [sic] could not shove through Congress.鈥�

The decision was finalized and dated on Aug. 26 and was made public today.