Politico: NLRB FAULTS MACY’S FOR FAILING TO BARGAIN WITH MICRO-UNIT

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.politico.com/morningshift/0115/morningshift16649.html

NLRB FAULTS MACY’S FOR FAILING TO BARGAIN WITH MICRO-UNIT — The National Labor Relations Board ruled that Macy’s can’t re-litigate its opposition to bargaining with a so-called “micro” bargaining unit of fragrance department workers at a company store in Massachusetts.

In July, the NLRB, in a 3-1 decision, certified the unit of 41 Macy’s employees organized by Local 1445 of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union. That decision extended a standard it had previously applied to the healthcare industry, allowing smaller units within retail stores to organize. Macy’s and business groups hated the decision. The company told Reuters at the time that "organizing a selected portion of a store's selling associates into multiple collective bargaining units is impractical and an impediment to providing a consistent level of customer service.”

After July’s decision, however, Macy’s wouldn’t bargain with the unit and eventually faced unfair labor practices charges. In those proceedings, the company acknowledged its failure to bargain but, in so doing, contested the validity of the micro unit. But the board found yesterday that the company is barred from re-litigating that issue, ordering Macy’s to bargain in good faith with the unit.

“All representation issues raised by the respondent were or could have been litigated in the prior representation proceeding,” the opinion said. Read the full decision here: http://1.usa.gov/1xGMW4x