Rush Univ. Med. Ctr. v. National Labor Relations Bd. — Aug. 2016 (Summary)

NLRB

Rush Univ. Med. Ctr. v. Nat’l Labor Relations Bd.
No. 15-1050 (D.C. Cir. Aug. 16, 2016)

The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit denied an acute care facility’s petition for review of a self-determination election and granted the National Labor Relations Board (“Board”) cross application for enforcement.

The acute-care facility’s union, which has represented a unit of employees in different job classes at the facility, petitioned for a special election that would enable the acute care facility’s unrepresented Patient Care Technicians (“PCT”) to vote to become members of the union. The acute care facility opposed the proposed vote because, in its view, to comply with the Health Care Rule, the vote needed to encompass all unrepresented nonprofessional employees not just the PCTs. After the union’s regional director rejected the acute care facility’s position, the Board denied the health care facility’s request for review, which, consequently, led to the acute care facility’s refusal to negotiate. The Board ultimately found that the refusal to negotiate violated the National Labor Relations Act and brought suit.

The court rejected the acute care facility’s contention that the Board’s bargaining unit determination relied on an impermissible interpretation of the Health Care Rule. The court reasoned that when a union seeks to add unrepresented employees to what under the Health Care Rule is a preexisting nonconforming unit, the union does not have to accept all of the unrepresented employees who would fit within the same standardized unit in the rule. Therefore, the special election to allow the unrepresented PCTs to become members of the union was consistent with the Health Care Rule. Consequently, the court denied the acute care facility’s petition for review and granted the Board’s cross application for enforcement.