​Unions are legally required to hold elections every few years. (The number of years varies depending on the type of union.) During these elections, the union's membership elects an executive board, also sometimes referred to as the executive council. This elected group of representatives who take care of the day-to-day responsibilities for the union mostly just approve budgets, run elections, and pay bills, but from time to time they will also discuss issues affecting the school and the membership, communicate information to the membership, and appoint committees to complete various tasks on the membership's behalf, among other things. Boards vary in size depending on the union, and some are as small as just two or three people.

The executive board of a union is legally bound to conduct business by following very specific procedures to ensure members are represented fairly and equally. Furthermore, no elected member of the board has more power than another. Even the president of a board gets only one vote and cannot override a decision of the board as a whole. 
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Each meeting of a board is supposed to follow an official order of business, or agenda, and there are specific rules and guidelines for how discussion takes place, how votes are cast, etc. You may think this is all rather stuffy and formal, but these rules serve to help prevent the board from being hijacked by members, or factions of members, with political agendas or more sinister machinations. 
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Ultimately, it's important to understand that our Local 434 Executive Board has a duty to act on behalf of the membership as a whole, and the power of our union—any union—always resides with the membership, not its executive board or any other elected member. 

Fun stuff.

Every union, once formed, must create a constitution and bylaws. Nowadays, just referring to them as bylaws is fine. Having bylaws isn’t optional. It’s required by federal law, and once created, unions are legally bound by their bylaws. We can’t just decide to ignore them when it feels good or when following them becomes a little too inconvenient, at least not without risking lawsuits that will end up costing our members money. In fact, if you discover that your elected union officers are not adhering to their bylaws, you should call them out on it. If they don’t fix the issue within a reasonable amount of time, you have a right and obligation to file a formal complaint with the National Labor Relations Board.

We highly encourage everyone to read through their bylaws at least once. You can find them on our website. It’s surprisingly easy for unions, even large ones, to become complacent when it comes to performing their legal obligations and following their bylaws, so it’s important to have at least a few diligent, knowledgeable members involved in the union. It’s not safe to assume someone else is keeping the union accountable to the law or to their members, either. It might have to be you. In fact, a few years ago I drew attention to some election issues that needed to be fixed in order to align with the law, and the union worked hard to fix the issue before the next election. It was simply a matter of being ignorant of the law, not malicious non-compliance on the part of the union, but fixing the issue necessitated a knowledgeable member following proper channels.