04/28/2025: Montefiore Hospital Challenges NLRB's Constitutionality
Tossed off argument gets rejected by Regional Director.
Montefiore Nyack Hospital, 02-RC-349294 (Regional Election Decision)
The Regional Director of NLRB Region 02 has issued a decision directing a self-determination election for Registered Nurse Care Managers (RN Care Managers) at Montefiore Nyack Hospital to determine if they wish to join an existing bargaining unit of registered nurses represented by the New York State Nurses Association.
The New York State Nurses Association (Petitioner) currently represents a unit of registered nurses at the hospital and sought to add approximately 16 RN Care Managers to this existing unit through a self-determination election. The Employer opposed the petition, arguing that RN Care Managers do not share a community of interest with the existing unit, that care managers had been historically excluded from the unit, and that RN Care Managers are managerial employees and supervisors under the National Labor Relations Act.
The Regional Director analyzed the case under the Board's Health Care Rule, which identifies "all registered nurses" as one of eight appropriate bargaining units in acute care hospitals. The decision found that adding RN Care Managers to the existing RN unit would conform to this rule and would not create additional non-conforming units.
Applying the Board's Armour-Globe doctrine for self-determination elections, the Regional Director determined that:
RN Care Managers constitute an identifiable, distinct segment of employees based on their shared job classification, functions, qualifications, and supervision.
RN Care Managers share a community of interest with the existing RN unit, particularly because they are required to hold RN licenses and use their clinical skills daily, a factor to which the Board attaches considerable weight.
The historical exclusion of "case managers" from the unit does not bar the petition, as there was no express promise by the Union not to seek their representation under the Briggs Indiana doctrine.
RN Care Managers are not managerial employees as they do not formulate or effectuate high-level employer policies and their decision-making is limited to the routine discharge of professional duties.
RN Care Managers are not supervisors under Section 2(11) of the Act as they lack authority to assign work, responsibly direct employees, effectively recommend discipline, or reward employees using independent judgment.
The Regional Director also rejected the Employer's constitutional challenge to the Board's structure, finding no demonstrated harm from Board members' removal protections.
Accordingly, the Regional Director directed an election to be held on May 6, 2025, for the RN Care Managers to decide whether they wish to be included in the existing bargaining unit.
Significant Cases Cited
St. Vincent Medical Center, 357 NLRB 854 (2011): Established that adding unrepresented employees to existing units to create a unit that conforms to the Health Care Rule does not contravene the Rule.
Salem Hospital, 333 NLRB 560 (2001): Held that the Board generally includes utilization review/discharge planning workers in RN units when RN licensing is required for the job.
Women & Infants' Hospital of Rhode Island, 333 NLRB 479 (2001): Clarified that contractual exclusion of a group from a unit does not bar a petition without an express promise not to represent that group.
NLRB v. Yeshiva University, 444 U.S. 672 (1980): Established that managerial status is reserved for those who formulate and effectuate employer policies, not those who exercise routine professional judgment.
Oakwood Healthcare, Inc., 348 NLRB 686 (2006): Defined key supervisory terms including "assign," "responsibly direct," and "independent judgment" under Section 2(11) of the Act.
SA Recycling LLC, 08-RC-348902 (Regional Election Decision)
The NLRB Regional Director issued a Decision and Direction of Election in a case involving SA Recycling LLC and Teamsters Local Union No. 52. The union filed a petition seeking to add two employees in the Weighmaster classification to its existing "Yard Unit" at the company's Wooster, Ohio facility through an Armour-Globe self-determination election.
SA Recycling operates a scrap metal recycling business that processes ferrous (iron-containing, magnetic) and non-ferrous materials. The facility employs 15 workers total, with the union already representing employees in a Drivers Unit (4 employees) and a Yard Unit (3 employees). The company argued that while the Weighmasters constitute a distinct and identifiable group, they do not share a community of interest with the existing Yard Unit employees.
The Weighmasters' primary job function is receiving non-ferrous materials from customers, identifying elements, weighing materials, and issuing receipts. They operate on the west side of a railroad track that bisects the facility, while Yard Unit employees (Inspector, Shear Operator, and Crane Operator) primarily work on the east side processing ferrous materials.
After analyzing the traditional community-of-interest factors, the Regional Director concluded that the Weighmasters constitute a distinct, identifiable segment of the workforce that shares a sufficient community of interest with the Yard Unit employees to warrant a self-determination election.
The community-of-interest analysis found that most factors favored including Weighmasters in the Yard Unit:
Skills and training: Both groups perform similar customer service and material identification functions
Job functions: Both identify and process recyclable materials
Functional integration: Weighmasters and Yard Unit employees coordinate daily to serve customers with mixed loads
Contact: Regular radio communication and shared use of equipment and facilities
Terms and conditions: Same hours, similar benefits, and subject to the same work rules
Supervision: All employees report to the same General Manager
The Regional Director rejected the employer's arguments based on past bargaining history and a previous unit clarification decision involving non-ferrous employees, finding these circumstances distinguishable from the current case.
The Regional Director directed a self-determination election to be held on May 22, 2025, where the Weighmasters will vote on whether they wish to be represented by the union. If a majority votes yes, they will be included in the existing Yard Unit.
Significant Cases Cited
Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, 373 NLRB No. 99 (2024): Established that petitioned-for employees need only share a community of interest more generally with existing unit employees rather than with every classification.
St. Vincent Charity Medical Center, 357 NLRB 854 (2011): Clarified that the "identifiable and distinct" analysis is separate from the "appropriate unit" determination.
Warner-Lambert Co., 298 NLRB 993 (1990): Established criteria for directing Armour-Globe elections when employees share a community of interest with the unit and constitute an identifiable, distinct segment.
Public Service Co. of Colorado, 365 NLRB No. 104 (2017): Held that differences in employment terms resulting from collective bargaining do not mandate exclusion in the Armour-Globe context.
United Operations, Inc., 338 NLRB 123 (2002): Applied the traditional community of interest test in the context of self-determination elections.
Fairview Health Services, 18-RC-362062 (Regional Election Decision)
This April 23, 2025 decision by NLRB Regional Director Jennifer A. Hadsall addresses a petition filed by Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA) seeking to add CV Imaging Center nurses to its existing bargaining unit of registered nurses at Fairview Health Services' hospital in Edina, Minnesota through an Armour-Globe self-determination election.
The key issue was whether the CV imaging nurses share a sufficient community of interest with the existing bargaining unit to warrant a self-determination election. The Employer argued that the CV imaging nurses should instead constitute a stand-alone unit.
Facts
Fairview Health Services operates an acute-care hospital campus in Edina with multiple buildings. The CV Imaging Center is located in the West Building (6405), which is connected to the main hospital (6401) via stairs and skyway. MNA represents approximately 1,300 registered nurses at the hospital, working in various departments across multiple buildings.
The CV imaging nurses are registered nurses who assist physicians with non-invasive cardiac testing. Their work requires nursing licenses, prior critical care experience, and ACLS certification. They interact occasionally with bargaining unit nurses, typically once per week. One of the three CV imaging nurses also works in the catheterization lab, which is part of the existing bargaining unit. Both CV imaging nurses and unit nurses report up different managerial chains, though some unit nurses report through the same cardiac care service line as CV imaging nurses.
Legal Analysis
The Regional Director applied the Armour-Globe doctrine, which requires that employees sought to be added: (1) constitute an identifiable, distinct segment of the workforce; and (2) share a community of interest with unit employees.
For the first requirement, the Regional Director found the CV imaging nurses constitute an identifiable, distinct group as they work in a single center under common supervision with distinct duties.
For the community of interest determination, the Regional Director analyzed six factors:
Departmental Organization: Slightly favors finding a community of interest, as the existing unit already contains nurses from diverse departments including some under the same service line.
Skills, Training, and Job Functions: Favors finding a community of interest, as both groups require nursing licenses, similar certifications, and perform patient care using the same electronic systems.
Functional Integration: Favors finding a community of interest, as the nurses work on different aspects of patient care within an integrated healthcare system, with CV imaging nurses receiving cardiac patients from unit nurses.
Contact and Interchange: Slightly favors finding a community of interest, based on weekly work-related contact, evidence of some nurses working in both areas, and proximity.
Terms and Conditions of Employment: Neutral factor, as both groups are hourly employees with similar uniforms and wage rates, but have different benefits and schedules.
Common Supervision: Neutral factor, as day-to-day supervision differs, though some unit nurses report up through the same cardiac care service line.
Weighing these factors, the Regional Director found that the CV imaging nurses share a community of interest with the existing bargaining unit. The decision also noted that allowing a self-determination election would avoid the proliferation of units that the Health Care Rule was designed to prevent, rather than creating a separate small unit of just three nurses.
Election Direction
The Regional Director directed a manual election to be held on April 30, 2025, for CV imaging nurses to determine if they wish to be included in the existing MNA bargaining unit.
Significant Cases Cited
St. Vincent Charity Medical Center, 357 NLRB 854 (2011): Established that petitioned-for employees need not constitute a separate appropriate unit to be added to an existing unit.
Warner-Lambert Company, 298 NLRB 993 (1990): Set forth the standard for evaluating appropriateness of adding employees to an existing unit under Armour-Globe doctrine.
Armour and Company, 40 NLRB 1333 (1942): One of the foundational cases establishing the doctrine for self-determination elections.
Globe Machine and Stamping Co., 3 NLRB 294 (1937): Along with Armour, established the framework for self-determination elections.
Capital Cities Broadcasting, 194 NLRB 1063 (1972): Distinguished when a voting group is an appropriate or inappropriate segment for Armour-Globe elections.