NLRB Extends “Specialty Healthcare” to Acute Care Hospitals: Carves Unit into Multiple Smaller Pieces

My colleague Barry A. Guryan published a Health Employment And Labor (HEAL) blog post that will be of interest to many of our readers: “NLRB Extends “Specialty Healthcare” to Acute Care Hospitals: Carves Unit into Multiple Smaller Pieces.”

Following is an excerpt:

Ever since 1974, when the NLRB (“Board”) first took jurisdiction over health care institutions, the Board has paid particular attention to the impact of union organizing on the delivery of healthcare in this industry in general  and of acute care hospitals in particular.  When the Act was first amended in 1974, Congress stated its objective at that time was to avoid a “proliferation of bargaining units” as one method to limit the inevitable disruption created by numerous elections and negotiations while at the same time balancing employee’s opportunity to exercise its Section 7 rights to organize and collectively bargain.

Consistent with this goal, in 1987, the Board instituted a Rulemaking Procedure to streamline the organizing and collective bargaining process in the Health Care Industry and instituted the Health Care Rule, 29 C.F.R. Sect. 130, which sets forth the 8 appropriate units for acute care hospitals.

Read the full blog post here.