Employees' Location as a Factor for Determining Community of Interest

Abstract

Once a representation petition is filed, an employer should look at the petitioned‐for unit (generally defined in a manner most advantageous to the union's interest in seeing an election win) to see if it is consistent with existing law governing the appropriateness of voting units based on whether the employees in that unit have a community of interest that distinguishes them from other groups of workers. Factors for determining whether there is a community of interest among the unit workers include whether they have similar wages, benefits, hours of work and supervision. Also, as recently addressed in AT&T Mobility Services, LLC, 371 NLRB No. 14 (2021), the appropriateness of a bargaining unit can be challenged based on the inclusion or exclusion of multiple locations.