Micro-Unions

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Many in the labor community are familiar with the Machinists Union’s long running effort to unionize Boeing’s South Carolina-based 787 Dreamliner manufacturing facility.  After failing in two previous attempts to organize the entire facility, the Union recently won a bid to organize a “micro-unit” limited to a group of flight line technicians and inspectors.  …
Continue Reading Business Groups Support Boeing’s Appeal in Controversial NLRB Bargaining Unit Case

During a week that brought several notable decisions, the National Labor Relations Board issued a ruling on Friday, December 15, 2017, overturning its controversial 2011 Specialty Healthcare & Rehabilitation Center of Mobile, 357 NLRB 934 (2011) (“Specialty Healthcare”) , which held that in order for employees to be included in a collective bargaining unit, employers had to prove the employees shared an “overwhelming community of interest” with one another. …
Continue Reading NLRB Overturns Prior Precedent, Eliminates “Micro Units” and Discards “Overwhelming Community of Interest” Standard

On May 24, 2017, Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) and Rep. Francis Rooney (R-Fl.) each introduced the Representation Fairness Restoration Act in their respective Houses of Congress in an attempt to reverse the controversial 2011 ruling by the National Labor Relations Board in Specialty Healthcare & Rehabilitation Center of Mobile, 357 NLRB No. (2011). The Board in Specialty Healthcare announced a new standard for determining the appropriateness of a bargaining unit. The Representation Fairness Restoration Act seeks to eliminate that new standard.
Continue Reading Specialty Healthcare Update: Republican Lawmakers Seek to Eliminate Micro-Bargaining Unit Standard

The National Labor Relations Board has an 80-plus year history of administering federal labor law and regulating labor-management relations in the United States. Since the board is made up of political appointees — five members who decide cases and a General Counsel who sets the board’s enforcement agenda — its interpretation of the National Labor Relations Act can vary depending on which political party holds the majority.
Continue Reading Returning Balance To The NLRB

On February 14th 2017, Hunton labor partner Kurt Larkin will present testimony at the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions hearing on “Restoring Balance and Fairness to the National Labor Relations Board.”…
Continue Reading Hunton Labor Partner Kurt Larkin to Testify Before U.S. House of Representatives

By now, most in the employer community are all too familiar with the NLRB’s controversial “micro-bargaining unit” standard announced in Specialty Healthcare & Rehabilitation Center of Mobile, 357 NLRB No. 83 (2011). In that case, the Board announced a standard that in almost all instances results in approval of a union-requested bargaining unit, unless the employer can show that an “overwhelming community-of-interest” exists between the requested unit and some other part of its workforce. …
Continue Reading NLRB Pushing Specialty Healthcare Standard to Unprecedented Lengths