NLRB Reaffirms Single Facility Bargaining Unit Presumption

WeCare Transportation, Inc, 353 NLRB No. 9 (Sept. 17, 2008), is an important case because it reaffirms the NLRB's long standing single facility presumption. In any "R" case, the NLRB must determine the appropriate unit. The single facility presumption is important where employees work in multiple locations for the same employer. The Board described the presumption as follows:

With respect to unit determinations of employees at
single versus multilocation units, the Board has long held
that a petitioned-for single-facility unit is presumptively
appropriate, unless it has been so effectively merged into
a more comprehensive unit, or is so functionally integrated,
that it has lost its separate identity. See J & L
Plate, Inc., 310 NLRB 429 (1993). The party opposing
the single-facility unit has the heavy burden of rebutting
its presumptive appropriateness. However, the Board
“has never held or suggested that to rebut the presumption
a party must proffer ‘overwhelming evidence . . .
illustrating the complete submersion of the interests of
employees at the single store,’ nor is it necessary to show
that ‘the separate interests’ of the employees sought have
been ‘obliterated.’” Petrie Stores Corp., 266 NLRB 75,
76 (1983).
To determine whether the single-facility presumption
has been rebutted, the Board examines a number of
community-of-interest factors, including (1) central control
over daily operations and labor relations, including
the extent of local autonomy; (2) similarity of employee
skills, functions, and working conditions; (3) the degree
of employee interchange; (4) the distance between the
locations; and (5) bargaining history, if any exists. J & L
Plate, Inc., supra at 429; R & D Trucking, Inc., 327
NLRB 531 (1999).

Mitchell H. Rubinstein