Unions’ worst fears about a recent legal decision may be
coming true.
When the National Labor Relations Board announced Oct. 3 that hospital
charge nurses are supervisors and therefore can’t belong to
a union, labor said the decision would soon apply to other kinds
of workers.
Two weeks after that decision, the NLRB told its regional directors
to re-examine 54 legal cases in light of the newly established definition
of supervisor. While 35 of the cases involved hospitals and nursing
homes, 19 did not.
The cases involve carpenters, electricians, grocery workers and
TV reporters.
In each case, the Board said the union and the company must get
a new ruling on who is a supervisor and who isn’t.
One case stemmed from a June 2005 organizing campaign in Portland.
Workers at CBS affiliate KOIN-TV wanted to join Local 51 of the
National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians-Communications
Workers of America. For legal reasons, the workers were split into
two groups. Station management argued that some of the workers seeking
to unionize in the second group — nine news producers and
three assignment desk editors — were supervisors. The NLRB’s
regional office disagreed, and scheduled elections for both groups.
Management appealed, so the NLRB conducted the elections, but impounded
the ballots of the second group until the legal challenge is resolved.
The national Board agreed to look at the case, but now wants the
regional office to a second look based on the national Board’s
ruling on the charge nurse case.
That’s not going to happen. Cathy Callahan, outgoing director
of the NLRB’s Portland office, said she’s asking both
sides if they still want the NLRB to decide the matter.
But events in the meantime have made the matter moot.
NABET-CWA won the election for the first group. Emmis Communications,
the station owner that fought the unionizing campaign, sold KOIN-TV
to Montecito Broadcast Group in January 2006, and Montecito agreed
to voluntarily recognize the second group in exchange for NABET-CWA
dropping the news producers. In July the two sides signed a first-ever
three-year contract covering both groups.
“This whole story illustrates how one-sided and slanted this
NLRB process is,” said Local 51 President Kevin Wilson. And
it’s getting worse with the NLRB’s recent decision,
which will impact every industry, Wilson said.
Other cases the Board sent back down to its regional offices for
new hearings on who is a supervisor include disputes involving a
barge operator in Longview, Wash., and a children’s museum
in Seattle.
The same three-person Board majority that voted to declare charge
nurses to be supervisors voted to remand these cases back for a
new look.
