Labor Relations Law Blog

The PCC Structurals decision, like the Board’s other major rulings last week, was issued by the three Republican appointees on the Board, with the two Democrat appointees dissenting. The Board majority returned to the pre-Specialty Healthcare “traditional community of interest standard” to evaluate whether a petitioned-for bargaining unit was appropriate. This test requires “a more vigorous assessment of unit appropriateness, regardless of whether an “overwhelming community of interest exists between excluded employees and those in the petitioned-for unit.” The Board stated that no longer must “extraordinary deference” be given to the petitioned-for unit; rather “the interests of employees both within and outside the petitioned-for unit” should be considered.  

In PCC Structurals, the NLRB reversed the Regional Director’s ruling allowing a unit of 100 welding employees of a manufacturer in Oregon to vote in favor of a union. The Board remanded the case to reevaluate the employer’s argument that the only appropriate unit was all 2,565 production and maintenance employees in the facility. The Board stated the Regional Director should examine whether the petitioned-for unit and the excluded employees:

• are organized into separate departments;

• have distinct skills and training;

• have distinct job functions and perform distinct work;

• are functionally integrated with the other employees;

• have frequent contact and interchange with other employees;

• have distinct terms and conditions of employment; and

• are separately supervised.

The PCC Structurals ruling, combined with the NLRB’s stated intent to review union election rules, as noted in our blog post earlier this week, suggests the NLRB’s interest in revamping the election processes modified by the prior Administration and in giving employers a more meaningful opportunity to raise issues and litigate them, where disputed, before an election takes place.