© Copyright Acquisition International 2025 - All Rights Reserved.

Article Image - NLRB Micro-Union Decision Causes Untold Harm to Retail
Posted 30th April 2015

NLRB Micro-Union Decision Causes Untold Harm to Retail

The National Labor Relations Board’s decision to recognize a micro-union of workers in just a single department at a Macy’s store in Massachusetts rather than the entire store violates longstanding precedents on union organizing, said the NRF.

Mouse Scroll AnimationScroll to keep reading

Let us help promote your business to a wider following.

NLRB Micro-Union Decision Causes Untold Harm to Retail
Image

NLRB Micro-Union Decision Causes Untold Harm to Retail

The National Labor Relations Board’s decision to recognize a micro-union of workers in just a single department at a Macy’s store in Massachusetts rather than the entire store violates longstanding precedents on union organizing, the National Retail Federation and the Retail Industry Leaders Association said today in a friend-of-the-court brief filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals.

“The NLRB’s support for micro-unions will turn workplace cohesion and efficiency on its head and will acutely harm the retail industry,” NRF Senior Vice President for Government Relations David French said. “The establishment of micro-unions will erect unnecessary barriers between both employees and opportunities and employees and their customers.”

The case before the court derives from the NLRB’s 2014 decision to recognize workers in the cosmetics and fragrance department at a Macy’s store in Saugus, Mass., as a bargaining unit, abandoning its previous view that a unit needed to consist of employees from at least an entire store. NRF and RILA point out that the new standard would balkanize retail employees, hamper customer service and impede both employee rights and retail operations. Macy’s has appealed the ruling.

“The board’s decision in Macy’s to cast aside the board’s longstanding whole-store unit presumption for the retail industry – despite promising not to do so in its Specialty Healthcare decision – ignores the realities of the retail workplace and causes untold harm to the retail industry.

“The board’s new test encourages a single store’s workforce to be dissected into small, fractured bargaining units – like the Macy’s store here – which hamstrings retail operations and customer service, multiplies administrative costs and limits opportunities for employees who could be denied the chance for advancement or additional work because of arbitrary union line-drawing,” the brief said.

“Unions now face little impediment to organizing by cherry-picking a small subset of employees with little regard for whether those employees constitute a practical bargaining unit, and with little regard as to whether the designated subset of employees has organizational significance within the employers’ business.”

NRF and RILA believe the NLRB erred in its application of the Specialty Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center of Mobile decision to the Macy’s case. The associations argue that the decision ignores longstanding labor precedent and the uniqueness of the retail industry workforce and violates the National Labor Relations Act.

NRF is the world’s largest retail trade association, representing discount and department stores, home goods and specialty stores, Main Street merchants, grocers, wholesalers, chain restaurants and Internet retailers from the United States and more than 45 countries. Retail is the nation’s largest private sector employer, supporting one in four U.S. jobs – 42 million working Americans. Contributing $2.6 trillion to annual GDP, retail is a daily barometer for the nation’s economy. NRF’s This is Retailcampaign highlights the industry’s opportunities for life-long careers, how retailers strengthen communities, and the critical role that retail plays in driving innovation.

Categories: Leadership


You Might Also Like
Read Full PostRead - Eye Icon
Delivering Excellence in the Coaching Sector
Innovation
04/01/2017Delivering Excellence in the Coaching Sector

2b Limitless as a professional coaching organisation focused on strengths, engagement, performance and transformation. We are focused on c-suite executives, senior leaders, entrepreneurial leaders and high performance teams. Our core business is built around e

Read Full PostRead - Eye Icon
Bitcoin Trading Strategies for Success
Finance
21/02/2023Bitcoin Trading Strategies for Success

Read this article to learn proven strategies for successful Bitcoin trading, including technical analysis, fundamental analysis, hedging, and arbitrage.

Read Full PostRead - Eye Icon
Indian Ingenuity in Educational Excellence
Innovation
04/02/2020Indian Ingenuity in Educational Excellence

For many students, learning and achieving academic success requires more than simply studying books. Feeling invested in and connected with can help students go above and beyond their limitations in striving for better careers. EduconIndia is helping students

Read Full PostRead - Eye Icon
CEO of the Year, UK
Leadership
18/03/2016CEO of the Year, UK

CEO of the Year, UK

Read Full PostRead - Eye Icon
The biggest brand gambles of all time and what can we learn from them
Leadership
15/07/2019The biggest brand gambles of all time and what can we learn from them

Much of business, and in particular growth, is about the management of risk. In any industry the ability to understand a potential return on any investment (be it time, money or people) and act on it is crucial.

Read Full PostRead - Eye Icon
Changing of the Guard
Leadership
02/12/2019Changing of the Guard

Changing of the Guard The London Internet Exchange (LINX) was established in 1994, using a donated piece of equipment no larger than a set-top box, no legal contracts and five founding members wanting to keep traffic local and avoid transatlantic fees. Now spr

Read Full PostRead - Eye Icon
An Innovation in Artificial Intelligence
Innovation
01/02/2021An Innovation in Artificial Intelligence

AI has already begun to revolutionize every aspect of our lives, with the potential offered by this new technology still relatively untapped. A company that is heavily invested in the development of AI and its uses throughout different industries is AI.io. Rec

Read Full PostRead - Eye Icon
Merger Between Greenbrier Europe and Astra Rail
Finance
14/10/2016Merger Between Greenbrier Europe and Astra Rail

The Greenbrier Companies, Inc. and Astra Rail Management GmbH today announced plans to form a new company, Greenbrier-Astra Rail, that will create an end-to-end, Europe-based freight railcar manufacturing, engineering and repair business.

Read Full PostRead - Eye Icon
The Only Way is Upp.
News
08/08/2023The Only Way is Upp.

Sometimes, companies could see a decay in income from their marketing channels, but there may not seem to be a reason for it.



Our Trusted Brands

Acquisition International is a flagship brand of AI Global Media. AI Global Media is a B2B enterprise and are committed to creating engaging content allowing businesses to market their services to a larger global audience. We have a number of unique brands, each of which serves a specific industry or region. Each brand covers the latest news in its sector and publishes a digital magazine and newsletter which is read by a global audience.

Arrow