Long-term care groups fight National Labor Relations Board on collective bargaining issue

More than 50 long-term care organizations banded together Tuesday in an effort to maintain current collective bargaining procedures for healthcare unions. A National Labor Relations Board proposal would change the way in which it determines the composition of bargaining units in long-term care facilities.

The NLRB is considering a review of a decades-old decision, referred to as Park Manor Care Center, 305 NLRB 872 (1992). Park Manor prevents bargaining units in long-term care facilities from fracturing and proliferating into single-job title groups, and establishes a “community of interest” standard. In their “friend of the court” brief filed with the NLRB, the long-term care groups say that revisiting and changing Park Manor is unnecessary, and would lead to drastic changes in the long-term care industry.

“We must … remind the NLRB that over 75 years of precedent is a strong indicator that the current process is working,” said American Health Care Association and National Centers for Assisted Living president and CEO Mark Parkinson in a statement.

Signed by 54 long-term care groups, including AHCA/NCAL, LeadingAge and the Assisted Living Federation of America, the amicus brief is more blunt in its appeal to the NLRB: “The Board should leave well enough alone.” The text of the amicus brief can be seen here.