SELBYVILLE — By an overwhelming majority, employees at Mountaire’s Selbyville plant who are members of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 27 voted Thursday to remove the union.

According to the National Labor Relations Board, which tallied the votes, the count was 356-80 to cut the union, Mountaire announced Friday in a press release.

“After 44 years of union representation, the Selbyville plant takes a huge step forward today,” said Phillip Plylar, president of Mountaire. “Our employees have just been asking for their voices to be heard, and today, they were heard loud and clear.”

The mail-in ballots were counted Thursday at the NLRB regional office in Baltimore. The vote is expected to be officially certified Dec. 23.

A Selbyville employee filed a petition in October to decertify the union. Ballots were sent to employees in November and had to be received by NLRB by Thursday at 3 p.m.

Last summer, employees asked for decertification of UFCW but were denied the option due to a technicality. A mail-in vote was held, but the union filed numerous challenges, and ultimately, NLRB threw out the ballots without counting them.

This fall was the first opportunity employees had to again ask for an election.

Selbyville is the only processing plant owned by Mountaire where unions were present. The union has been part of the facility since it was purchased by the company in 1977.