Keywords
employment, labor, collective bargaining, bargaining units, non-profit hosptials, labor-management relations
Abstract
The purpose of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) is to ensure the well-being of labor-management relations through the encouragement of collective bargaining, and the prohibition of certain practices by labor unions and employers. The NLRA applies to cases where labor disputes may tend to burden, obstruct or affect interstate commerce. In an effort to settle the controversy surrounding the National Labor Relations Board's (NLRB) jurisdiction over non-profit hospitals, Congress passed the Health Care Amendments to squarely put non-profit hospitals under NLRB's jurisdiction. This note examines two problems presented by the amendments: (1) the extent of NLRB's jurisdiction under the amendments, specifically considerations of the minimum monetary standards of interstate business; (2) and the appropriate bargaining units for hospital workers in collective bargaining, specifically the question of what type of hospital employees can be grouped together in light of Congress' admonition against the undue proliferation of these units. The note concludes that the NLRB has approached fulfilling the NLRA's purpose with flexibility and highlighted the NLRB's attempt to balance the traditional community of interests tests with the congressional mandate to avoid proliferation of bargaining units.
Recommended Citation
Robert H. Ringer,
The 1974 Health Care Amendments to the National Labor Relations Act: Jurisdictional Standards and Appropriate Bargaining Units,
5 Fordham Urb. L.J. 351
(1977).
Available at: https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/ulj/vol5/iss2/8