Specialty Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center of Mobile, et al.

Responding to an invitation from the NLRB, NCLC filed two briefs urging the Board to hold that where there is no history of collective bargaining, a bargaining unit comprised only of employees performing the same job at a nonacute health care facility is inappropriate under the standard articulated in Park Manor Care. In Park Manor Care, the NLRB ruled against the establishment of small, fragmented bargaining units in both acute and nonacute health care facilities. NCLC argued that Congress did not intend for the proliferation of bargaining units in the health care industry when it enacted amendments to the National Labor Relations Act in 1974. NCLC warned that revising the bargaining unit standard would increase the likelihood of strikes, jurisdictional disputes, and other disruptions to health care operations. 

The NLRB overruled its 1991 decision in Park Manor, which established a specific standard for determining appropriate bargaining units  for nursing homes, rehabilitation centers, and other facilities. In its Specialty Healthcare decision, the NLRB held that non-acute health care facilities employees would be subject to the "community-of-interest" test to determine whether they could constitute an "appropriate bargaining unit." The board found that in this instance, the nursing home Certified Nursing Assistants might be considered an "appropriate bargaining unit" even though the unit excludes other non-professional employees. Dissenting, NLRB board member Brian Hayes criticized the NLRB's activist decision to eliminate the non-controversial, 20-year old Park Manor test, particularly where the party seeking NLRB review had never objected to the Park Manor test.

Amicus brief filed 3/8/11. Supplemental brief filed 3/29/11. Decided 8/30/11.