Category Archives: Specialty Healthcare

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Special Delivery: NLRB Returns to Obama-Era Standard to Limit Employer Ability to Change a Proposed Bargaining Unit

The National Labor Relations Board continues its December precedent merry-go-round with a return to the Specialty Healthcare, 357 NLRB 934 (2011) (“Specialty Healthcare”) standards for bargaining unit determinations. In American Steel Construction, 372 NLRB No. 23, the Board overturned PCC Structurals, Inc., 365 NLRB No. 160 (2017) (“PCC Structurals”) (which had, itself, restored traditional community-of-interest … Continue Reading

NLRB Puts a Finer Point on Its Community of Interest Test with a New Three-Step Analysis

By Michael Lebowich and Laura Franks on September 12, 2019 Posted in Bargaining units, NLRA, NLRB, Specialty Healthcare

Still hard at work as we head into mid-September, the National Labor Relations Board, in a 3-1 decision (Chairman Ring and Members Kaplan and Emanuel in the majority, Member McFerran dissenting) announced a three-step test which clarifies how petitioned-for partial workforce units are analyzed under the traditional community of interest factors. In 2017, the Board … Continue Reading

NLRB Issues Strategic Plan for Coming Years

By Mark Theodore on December 13, 2018 Posted in Bargaining units, NLRB, NLRB Election Rules, Specialty Healthcare, Uncategorized, Unfair Labor Practices

The NLRB recently made public its NLRB Strategic Plan FY 2019-FY2022 wherein it states it wants to reduce time to handle cases before it by 5% per year at each stage of the case processing. The Strategic Plan provides an excellent snapshot of NLRB operations (page 3) but not much can be read into, or from, this document, which is … Continue Reading

Gridlock Broken: Senate Confirms John Ring as Newest Member of NLRB

By Mark Theodore on April 11, 2018 Posted in Employer policies, NLRB, Specialty Healthcare, Uncategorized

By a vote of 50 to 48 the U.S. Senate confirmed Republican John Ring as a Member of the National Labor Relations Board, giving the agency a full five member complement. Member Ring, whose term expires December 16, 2022, takes the seat previously held by Chairman Miscimarra. The addition of Member Ring means, of course, that the … Continue Reading

“Micro-Units” Eliminated: NLRB Overturns Specialty Healthcare

By Michael Lebowich and Lee Douthitt on December 16, 2017 Posted in Bargaining units, NLRA, NLRB, Representation Elections, Specialty Healthcare

Adding to the list of falling precedents in the waning days of Chairman Miscimarra’s term, on Friday, the NLRB reversed another of the seminal decisions of the Obama-Board when it overruled the highly controversial Specialty Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center of Mobile, 357 NLRB 934 (2011) decision. The 3-2 decision in PCC Structurals, Inc., 365 NLRB … Continue Reading

The Devil Is In the Details: New Board Members Likely To Change Law In Nuanced Ways

By Mark Theodore on October 9, 2017 Posted in Duty to furnish information, Duty to provide information, Employer policies, General Counsel, Investigations, NLRA, NLRB, Protected activity, Section 8(a)(1), Specialty Healthcare, Uncategorized, Unfair Labor Practices, Witness statements

The end of September in most years sees a spate of new NLRB decisions, sometimes dozens, issued on or about September 30, to coincide with the end of the agency’s fiscal year. Not so this past September 30 because of the recent changeover from a majority of Democrat Board Members to a majority of Republican … Continue Reading

NLRB’s Micro-Union Standard May Be Set For Reversal

By Mark Theodore on May 18, 2017 Posted in Bargaining units, NLRA, NLRB, Representation Elections, Section 9(a), Specialty Healthcare

Change is coming. We noted recently that the administration is thinking about changing the newly adopted persuader regulations. We also know that a majority of make-up of the NLRB is likely to shift very soon, and with it some of the precedents of the last few years will be reversed. Newly appointed Chairman Miscimarra seems to be reiterating what … Continue Reading

17 Year Old Ruling In Representation Case Can Preclude New Claim For Employees, Divided NLRB Rules

By Mark Theodore on April 13, 2017 Posted in Bargaining units, NLRA, NLRB, NLRB Election Rules, Non-Union employers, Representation Elections, Rulemaking, Specialty Healthcare

Of all the changes to the law the NLRB has made in the last several years, the most significant involve how the agency determines bargaining units. For example, the NLRB’s decision in Specialty Healthcare drastically altered the manner in which bargaining units were determined by the Regional Directors and the NLRB. Also, the NLRB’s ambush election rules also … Continue Reading

Micro-Units under the Microscope: The Second and Fifth Circuit Courts Consider Specialty Healthcare and Its Misapplication

By Michael Lebowich, Mariya (Masha) Nazginova and Brett Schwab on December 1, 2016 Posted in Bargaining units, Collective Bargaining, NLRA, NLRB, Section 9(b), Section 9(c)(5), Specialty Healthcare

Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit joined the Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Circuits in upholding the Board’s Specialty Healthcare standard for determining appropriate bargaining units under the National Labor Relations Act, although with a very skeptical eye on how it applied. Constellation Brands, U.S. Operations, Inc. v. NLRB, … Continue Reading

Department Store Units Decided Under Specialty Healthcare

By Ronald Meisburg on July 30, 2014 Posted in Bargaining units, Collective Bargaining, NLRA, NLRB, Specialty Healthcare

This week the NLRB decided two cases involving union organizing in large department stores. In each case an NLRB regional director applied the Board’s Specialty Healthcare test to determine whether the bargaining unit requested by the union was appropriate. In Specialty Healthcare, the Board held that a unit will be presumptively appropriate for collective bargaining … Continue Reading