NLRB's New Rules for Determining the Appropriateness of Microunits

Abstract

As we noted in last month's issue of Management Report, the National Labor Relations Board recently clarified its test for determining when the Board will accept a “microunit” as an appropriate group to organize within an employer's larger workforce. The ruling stopped the International Association of Machinists, which has been trying for years to organize the more than 2,700 workers at a Boeing plant in South Carolina, from representing a microunit of fewer than 200 technicians who are part of the workforce (The Boeing Company, 368 NLRB No. 67 (2019)). This article discusses the Board's new three‐prong test for whether a proposed microunit is appropriate.