We can expect a major accelleration of these 3-2 decisions stripping increasing number of workers of rights under the NLRA. (The NLRB is structured essentially with three appointees from the party holding the Presidency and two from the opposition party.)
----- Original Message ----- From: Annette Bernhardt
NLRB 3-2 OVERTURNS "STURGIS" ON UNITS INCLUDING TEMPS, REGULAR WORKERS
In a major decision involving temporary workers supplied by staffing firms, the National Labor Relations Board reverses a four-year-old precedent and rules 3-2 that both the staffing firm and the user employer must consent before the board will allow a representation election in a bargaining unit consisting of both jointly employed temporary workers and regular workers employed solely by the user employer (H.S. Care L.L.C., d/b/a Oakwood Care Ctr., 343 N.L.R.B. No. 76, 11/19/04 [released 11/26/04]).
The board majority consisting of Chairman Battista and Members Schaumber and Meisburg overrule the board's decision in M.B. Sturgis, which held that it is permissible, without employer consent, to have a bargaining unit combining both temporary workers jointly employed by a supplier employer and a user employer with regular workers solely employed by the user employer.
Saying that "Sturgis was wrongly decided," the board majority holds instead that such bargaining units constitute multiemployer units, which require the consent of both employers. Dissenting, Members Liebman and Walsh say the board majority "seems to have gone out of its way to make it impossible for joint employees to exercise their section 7 rights [to choose union representation] effectively.
++++++++++++++++++++++ Ana Avendaño Denier Associate General Counsel and Director, Immigrant Worker Program AFL-CIO 815 Sixteenth St. N.W. Washington, D.C. 20006
202-637-3949 (tel) 202-637-5323 (fax) aavendan at aflcio.org (email)
www.aflcio.org
-------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <../attachments/20041129/5a54aa86/attachment.htm>