Can I ban union talk while drivers are on the clock?

Only as part of an even-handed rule. The NLRB says working time is for work, but you cannot ban union talk during working time while allowing talk about other non-work subjects. You also cannot stop drivers from discussing or soliciting for a union before or after work or on breaks, or from handing out union literature on their own time in nonwork areas such as the parking lot.

Are drivers paid on a 1099 covered?

People who truly are independent contractors fall outside the National Labor Relations Act, which excludes them by name from its definition of employee. What the contract calls the driver is not the test, though, and a driver who works like an employee is protected. Treat organizing by 1099 drivers with the same care until their status is clear.

Can a dispatcher join the drivers' union?

It depends on what the dispatcher does. Supervisors are excluded from the Act, and the statute defines one as someone with authority to hire, discipline, assign, or responsibly direct other employees using independent judgment, or to effectively recommend those actions. A dispatcher who places trips by routine is likely an employee. One who disciplines drivers or decides assignments on judgment may be a supervisor.

A driver criticized the company in a public post. Can I fire her?

Be careful. Complaints about pay or conditions made with or on behalf of coworkers are protected concerted activity, including going to the media. Protection is lost only for statements the NLRB describes as "egregiously offensive or knowingly and maliciously false," or for publicly disparaging your services without tying the complaint to a labor dispute. A post that speaks for drivers about short pay for wait time is likely protected.

Can drivers vote a union out later?

Yes, through a decertification election, decided like any other NLRB election by a majority of votes cast. Timing is limited by bars such as an existing contract, and the union is presumed to have majority support during a contract term of up to three years. The NLRB lists giving more than minimal support to a decertification petition among the things an employer may not do.

Union organizing by drivers: what NEMT owners can do

Does federal labor law reach a small fleet?

Most likely, yes. The National Labor Relations Act covers private employers that meet the NLRB’s dollar standards, and the lowest of them is $50,000 a year. The Board groups taxi services with retail businesses, which are covered at $500,000 or more in gross annual volume. It groups private bus companies with transportation businesses that move passengers or goods, covered at $50,000. Other non-retail businesses are covered once they buy or sell $50,000 a year across state lines, directly or through a supplier. NEMT is not named in any category.

The Act protects employees, and two groups fall outside that word. The first is independent contractors. A driver paid on a 1099 who really runs an independent business is not covered, but the label does not settle it, as our guide to 1099 or W-2 drivers explains. The second is supervisors. The statute defines a supervisor as someone with authority to hire, discipline, assign, or responsibly direct other employees, or to effectively recommend those actions, when it takes independent judgment rather than routine or clerical work. A dispatcher who places trips by routine is likely an employee. A lead who disciplines drivers or decides assignments on judgment may be a supervisor.

Talking about pay is protected even without a union

Section 7 protects more than union activity. It gives employees the right to act together “for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection,” and that second part needs no union at all. The NLRB’s examples include talking with coworkers about pay or conditions, circulating a petition for better hours, joining a refusal to work in unsafe conditions, and going together to the employer, a government agency, or the media. One driver is covered too when acting for others or raising a group complaint.

In a van company, that looks like this:

A group text among drivers about unpaid time spent waiting on dialysis riders.
Three drivers asking together for the broken air conditioning in their vans to be fixed.
One driver bringing the owner a complaint the others asked her to raise.

You cannot fire, discipline, threaten, or coercively question a driver for any of those. Protection ends only at statements the NLRB calls “egregiously offensive or knowingly and maliciously false,” or at public attacks on your services that have nothing to do with a labor dispute. Write your discipline policy and the confidentiality section of your driver handbook so neither reaches pay talk.

What an owner may say

You can make your case. Section 8(c) of the Act says expressing “any views, argument, or opinion” is not an unfair labor practice as long as it carries “no threat of reprisal or force or promise of benefit.” That covers explaining why you think the company is better without a union, describing how an election works, and answering questions about the business.

The line falls at threats and promises. Keep it factual, and keep it away from what will happen to anyone’s job, pay, or routes depending on the vote.

What an owner may not do

The NLRB lists the employer conduct that crosses the line. The NEMT examples here are illustrations, not quotes from any case:

Threats. Warning of closing, lost benefits, or harsher conditions if drivers organize. Saying you will sell the vans and close before you deal with a union is a plain example.
Coercive questioning. Asking drivers about their own or coworkers’ union support. Whether a question is coercive depends on who asks, where, and how, and a driver called into the owner’s office to say who signed a card is the risky version.
Promises and timed raises. Promising benefits if drivers reject the union, newly asking for grievances in the middle of a campaign, granting a raise to sway the vote, or holding back a raise that was already planned.
Spying. Watching union activity or giving the impression you are. That includes photographing or recording peaceful protected activity. For example, pulling vehicle locations to see which drivers met an organizer would be watching union activity.
Rules aimed at the union. Banning union talk during working time while other non-work talk goes on, banning union buttons or shirts without special circumstances, or keeping off-duty drivers out of outside nonwork areas without a business reason.
Other pressure. Asking individual drivers to appear in a campaign video, telling them organizing is futile, or firing, demoting, or cutting the hours of anyone for protected activity.

A driver or union has six months from the conduct to file a charge with the NLRB.

How a union gets recognized

A union becomes your drivers’ representative either by winning an NLRB election or by your agreeing to recognize it. The election route runs in six steps:

Support. Organizers collect signed authorization cards or other signatures from drivers.
Petition. The union files with the nearest NLRB regional office, with support from at least 30 percent of the employees in the group it wants to represent.
Checks and notice. The NLRB confirms that no existing contract or recent election blocks a vote, and you post a Notice of Petition for Election where drivers will see it.
Terms of the vote. The parties agree on the date, time, place, ballot language, and which jobs are in the group. Without agreement, the Regional Director holds a hearing and may order an election. You then post a Notice of Election.
The vote. A majority of the votes cast decides. Objections are due within 7 days of the count, and the result can be set aside if conduct created confusion or fear of reprisal.
Certification. A winning union is certified as the drivers’ representative, and refusing to bargain with it is an unfair labor practice.

The other route is voluntary recognition. An employer may recognize a union after it shows majority support through signed cards or other means, outside the NLRB process. Employees then have a 45-day window after the recognition notice is posted to petition for an election. Once bargaining begins, the recognition blocks a challenge for at least six months and at most a year after the first bargaining session. If a union hands you a written demand for recognition, get labor counsel involved before you answer it.

Context: transit work and union rates

Union membership runs higher in transportation than in the private sector as a whole. In its release for 2025, published February 18, 2026, the Bureau of Labor Statistics put union membership at 10.0 percent of all wage and salary workers and 5.9 percent in the private sector. Transportation and warehousing was among the highest industries at 13.6 percent. Full-time union members had median weekly earnings of $1,404, against $1,174 for nonunion workers. BLS notes the 2025 figures leave out October, which was not collected during the shutdown.

Public transit adds a federal layer. Under 49 U.S.C. 5333(b), transit grants from the Federal Transit Administration come with labor protections the Labor Department certifies, including keeping rights under existing union contracts, continuing collective bargaining, and protecting employees from a worsening of their positions. When one private transit bus contractor replaces another through competitive bidding, Labor bases its decisions on job assurances on a 1994 ruling. If you bid on ADA paratransit work for a transit agency, read those terms before you price the contract.

What a contract changes for schedules and broker work

Certification changes how you make decisions. You must bargain in good faith, and before you reach an agreement or a genuine impasse you cannot change wages, hours, working conditions, or other mandatory subjects on your own. The NLRB allows only narrow exceptions, such as an economic emergency that forces prompt action.

That reaches the daily choices a NEMT owner makes. Moving drivers to a new shift pattern because a broker added Saturday dialysis runs, cutting per-trip pay after a broker rate drops, or changing how wait time is paid are all changes to wages, hours, or working conditions. Under a signed contract, you can make such changes only if the union clearly and unmistakably waived bargaining over them, or if the change is too minor to need it. The NLRB warns not to assume the Board will agree a change is minor.

Three more duties follow:

Information. You must provide information the union needs to represent drivers, such as hours and pay records, without unreasonable delay.
Subcontracting. A decision that changes the scope and direction of the business needs bargaining only over its effects. Handing the same work to a different group of workers under similar conditions is not that kind of decision. Broker agreements can limit it as well: the MTM provider agreement Pennsylvania posts forbids handing its trips to a subcontractor unless MTM agrees in writing.
Expiration. To change or end the contract when it runs out, send the union a written notice no later than 60 days before the end date, and notify federal and state mediators within 30 days of that notice.

Know your current pay models and what they cost before bargaining starts; our driver pay guide covers the common ones.

Answering for hours in HealthRide

Bargaining and union information requests run on records of who worked when. When a driver clocks in and out in the driver app, the shift lands on a HealthRide timecard, and the driver activity report in reports shows how many hours each driver worked. If the union asks for hours worked, you pull them from the same record your schedule ran on.

When your drivers talk about a union: what NEMT owners can and cannot do