§10.1 The Appropriate Bargaining Unit

LibraryLabor and Employment Law: Private Sector (OSBar) (2011 Ed.)
§10.1 THE APPROPRIATE BARGAINING UNIT

The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), 29 USC §§151-169, provides for union recognition as the employees' exclusive bargaining representative when the majority of employees within an appropriate bargaining unit have designated or selected that labor organization to represent them for collective bargaining. One of the principal purposes of the NLRA is to protect the rights of employees to determine for themselves, without coercion, whether they wish to be represented by a union. When a union requests recognition as the bargaining agent and the employer declines to recognize it as such, for any reason, a question concerning representation (QCR) arises and the administrative mechanisms of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) come into play to resolve the issues. One issue that the NLRB may be called on to decide is the appropriateness of the bargaining unit. The key issue in deciding if a unit is appropriate is the "community of interest" of the employees involved. The broadly defined concept of community of interest governs the appropriateness of all bargaining units, including initially organized units, severed units, plantwide units, multiplant units, departmental units, or craftwide units. If this community of interest is present, the unit normally is an appropriate one. When the parties cannot agree on the appropriateness of a particular unit, the NLRB must decide, after a hearing, whether a certain group of employees constitutes an appropriate unit for collective bargaining purposes. The NLRB is not concerned with whether a particular unit is the most appropriate unit, only that it is an appropriate unit within the meaning of the NLRA. Morand Bros. Beverage Co., 91 NLRB 409, 418 (1950). Community of interest is not governed by a bright-line legal test but is rather determined by an intensely factual inquiry. Similarities in the method of wage payment or compensation, hours of work, employee benefits, supervision, qualifications, training, skills, job functions, and amount of time spent away from the jobsite are considered, as well as the amount of contact with other employees, interrelation of operations, integration of work functions, and employee interchange. See, e.g., Kalamazoo Paper Box Corp., 136 NLRB 134, 137 (1962); Beecham Products, Div. of Beecham, Inc., 251 NLRB 731, 732 (1980).

§10.1-1 General Factors

§10.1-1(a) Centralized Employer Policymaking

To the extent that employees have the same supervision, are governed by the same employer labor-relations policies, and are employed within the same organizational structure, they share an obvious community of interest. These factors support the finding that these employees are within an appropriate bargaining unit. See, e.g., Greyhound Corp., 88 NLRB 13, 16 (1950).

§10.1-1(b) Bargaining History

In assessing the appropriateness of a bargaining unit, the National Labor Relations Board often gives weight to a history of stable...

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