NLRB Makes Union Organizing Easier in Long-Term Care Facilities

In late August, the NLRB issued a 3-1 decision overruling the 1991 Park Manor Care Center decision, which has governed the scope of new bargaining units outside the acute care (i.e., hospital) setting and held that parties who object to the scope of a new bargaining unit in long-term care facilities must demonstrate “an overwhelming community of interest” between the employees included in the petitioned unit and the excluded employees. In other words, a petitioned unit will be deemed appropriate if it contains employees who are readily identifiable as a group and who share a community of interest. Specialty Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center of Mobile and United Steelworkers, 357 N.L.R.B. No. 83 (Aug. 26, 2011). In Specialty Heathcare, the union sought a nursing home unit that consisted only of 53 certified nursing assistants, but the employer contended that the unit should consist of all non-professional and service employees, including maintenance workers, cooks, dietary aides, recreational aides, medical records clerks and clerical employees. This would add 33 additional employees to the unit. The decision is significant because it will make organizing employees in nursing homes much easier for unions if they can convince a majority of a smaller group of employees to vote in favor of the union and then slowly and steadily expand the unit over time to include additional groups. It will also mean that nursing home employers may face multiple unions among its workforce (and multiple bargaining agreements with differing deadlines and benefits, and multiple strikes, etc.). The Board indicated that this is the general rule for organizing all employees outside of the acute care industry.


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