Republicans introduce bill to scrap ‘micro-unions’

Republicans are reigniting efforts to scrap a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruling that allows unions to organize employees in so-called micro-unions.

Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) re-introduced the Representation Fairness Restoration Act this week to reverse the board’s 2011 ruling that adopted a new standard for determining appropriate bargaining units.

In the case of allowing a group of certified assistants at a nursing home to form a union, the board found that such unions are appropriate so long as they consist of a clearly identifiable group of employees who share a common interest.

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Isakson’s bill, which has 11 GOP co-sponsors including Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), would reinstate the long-established standard that unions should represent all workers in a class or craft.

Critics claim the NLRB ruling encourages small groups of employees within a store, restaurant or company to organize, complicating management.

“The National Labor Relations Board’s decision to allow micro-unions fractures workplaces and makes it harder and more expensive for employers to manage their workplace and do business — all for the sake of boosting organized labor,” Alexander said in a statement. 

“For example, your local department store could splinter into dozens of factions that the employer must now negotiate with — with the men’s clothing department, the bedding department, the fragrance department, and the women’s shoe department all represented by separate unions that are fighting over who gets the better raises and break rooms.”