Representation Fairness Restoration Act

Representation Fairness Restoration Act - Amends the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) to revise requirements for determination by the National Labor Relation Board (NLRB) of an appropriate bargaining unit before an election of collective bargaining representation. (In effect reverses the NLRB's August 26, 2011, decision in Specialty Healthcare and Rehabilitation of Mobile and its June 22, 2011, rulemaking regarding proposed changes to procedures involving the election of collective bargaining representation.)

Replaces the current restriction in the meaning of collective bargaining unit to employer unit, craft unit, plant unit, or subdivision. Requires the NLRB, instead, to determine a unit as appropriate for collective bargaining if it consists of employees that share a sufficient community of interest. Specifies factors the NLRB must consider when making such determinations.

Prohibits exclusion of employees from the unit unless the group's interests are sufficiently distinct from those of other employees to warrant the establishment of a separate unit.

[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1843 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

112th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1843

 To amend the National Labor Relations Act to provide for appropriate 
              designation of collective bargaining units.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           November 10, 2011

  Mr. Isakson (for himself, Mr. Alexander, Ms. Ayotte, Mr. Blunt, Mr. 
 Boozman, Mr. Burr, Mr. Chambliss, Mr. Coburn, Mr. Coats, Mr. Cochran, 
 Ms. Collins, Mr. Corker, Mr. DeMint, Mr. Enzi, Mr. Graham, Mr. Hatch, 
Mrs. Hutchison, Mr. Inhofe, Mr. Johanns, Mr. Johnson of Wisconsin, Mr. 
Lee, Mr. Lugar, Mr. McCain, Mr. Paul, Mr. Risch, Mr. Shelby, Ms. Snowe, 
  Mr. Thune, and Mr. Vitter) introduced the following bill; which was 
 read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, 
                              and Pensions

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend the National Labor Relations Act to provide for appropriate 
              designation of collective bargaining units.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Representation Fairness Restoration 
Act''.

SEC. 2. AMENDMENT TO THE NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS ACT.

    Section 9(b) of the National Labor Relations Act (29 U.S.C. 159(b)) 
is amended by striking the first sentence and inserting the following: 
``In each case, prior to an election, the Board shall determine, in 
order to ensure to employees the fullest freedom in exercising the 
rights guaranteed by this Act, the unit appropriate for the purposes of 
collective bargaining. Unless otherwise stated in this Act, excluding 
acute health care facilities, the unit appropriate for purposes of 
collective bargaining shall consist of employees that share a 
sufficient community of interest. In determining whether employees 
share a sufficient community of interest, the Board shall consider (1) 
similarity of wages, benefits, and working conditions; (2) similarity 
of skills and training; (3) centrality of management and common 
supervision; (4) extent of interchange and frequency of contact between 
employees; (5) integration of the work flow and interrelationship of 
the production process; (6) the consistency of the unit with the 
employer's organizational structure; (7) similarity of job functions 
and work; and (8) the bargaining history in the particular unit and the 
industry. To avoid the proliferation or fragmentation of bargaining 
units, employees shall not be excluded from the unit unless the 
interests of the group sought are sufficiently distinct from those of 
other employees to warrant the establishment of a separate unit. 
Whether additional employees should be included in a proposed unit 
shall be based on whether such additional employees and proposed unit 
members share a sufficient community of interest, with the exception of 
proposed accretions to an existing unit, in which the inclusion of 
additional employees shall be based on whether such additional 
employees and existing unit members share an overwhelming community of 
interest and the additional employees have little or no separate 
identity.''.
                                 <all>