Appeals Court Ruling Opens Door for ‘Micro’ Unions

Unions may organize groups of employees in a single workplace, creating “micro” bargaining units, after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit last week said the National Labor Relations Board could begin enforcing new policy. In its controversial Specialty Healthcare case, the NLRB ruled to change its parameters for deciding whether a proposed collective bargaining unit was too narrow. Now, in some cases employers challenging the appropriateness of a unit must show that “the excluded employees share an overwhelming community of interest with the included employees.”