Kindred Nursing Ctrs. East, LLC v. NLRB

Kindred Nursing Ctrs. East, LLC v. NLRB

Opinion

 [*554]  [***2]   BOYCE F. MARTIN, JR., Circuit Judge. ] Under federal labor law, workers in the private sector who wish to be represented by a union must petition the National Labor Relations Board to hold an election to determine if a majority of the workers wants union representation. Federal labor law gives the Board wide discretion to delineate the "bargaining unit," the term for the group of workers that will vote on union representation. Kindred Nursing Centers East, LLC, a nursing home operator, has petitioned for review of the Board's order that a bargaining unit of Certified Nursing Assistants "constitute[d] an appropriate unit." Specialty Healthcare and Rehab. Ctr. of Mobile, 357 N.L.R.B. No. 83, 2011 WL 3916077 at *2 (2011).  [**3] The Board has petitioned for enforcement of the order. The central issue in this case is whether the Board acted within its discretion in deciding Specialty Healthcare. We conclude that it did, and we therefore DENY Kindred's petition for review and GRANT the Board's cross-petition for enforcement.

We derive the facts in this case from the Board's opinion in Specialty Healthcare, 357 N.L.R.B. No. 83, 2011 WL 3916077 (2011), which we will call Specialty Healthcare II to distinguish it from the Board's previous case, Specialty  [***3]  Healthcare, 356 N.L.R.B. No. 56, 2010 WL 5195445 (2010), which we will call Specialty Healthcare I.

Kindred operates a nursing home and rehabilitation center in Mobile, Alabama. Specialty Healthcare, 357 N.L.R.B. No. 83, 2011 WL 3916077, at *2 (2011). There is no history of collective bargaining at this nursing home. Id. The facility, which the parties agree is a non-acute healthcare facility, consists of four floors and has beds for about 170 residents. Id.

Kindred places its employees in one of eight separate departments: nursing, nutrition  [*555]  services, resident activity, maintenance, administration, medical records, central supply, and social services. 357 N.L.R.B. No. 83, [WL] at *3.  [**4] The facility's executive director is the highest-ranking management official on site. The nursing director and business office manager report to the executive director. Id. The individual heads of all but one department report to the nursing director, as do the staffing coordinator, the medical records clerk, and the data entry clerk. Id.

Full case includes Shepard's, Headnotes, Legal Analytics from Lex Machina, and more.