The Houston Chronicle, August 28, 2006, Monday

Copyright 2006 The Houston Chronicle Publishing Company
All Rights Reserved
The Houston Chronicle

August 28, 2006 Monday
2 STAR EDITION

SECTION: BUSINESS; Pg. 1

HEADLINE: Labor board case is being watched;
Unions fear pending decision will change who can be a member

BYLINE: CARRIE MASON-DRAFFEN, Newsday

BODY:
Employers and unions are eagerly awaiting a pending National Labor Relations Board decision that could make it easier for companies to declare certain workers supervisors and thus ineligible for union membership.
It isn't known when the board will rule in the so-called Kentucky River cases. Some media reports have said the ruling could come this month. But a spokeswoman for the board said she couldn't confirm that.
Union activists fear a decision from the five-member board, all appointees of President Bush, will broaden the definition of a supervisor and make it illegal to organize certain employees in a range of industries, including health care, building trades, broadcasting and port shipping.
Rick Fridell, a Long Island, N.Y.-based lead organizer for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers' Third District, said the group's general foremen, who direct the work of others, would be most affected by a broad decision favoring employers.
"You can bet your last dollar that companies that are trying to stop their workers from forming a union will reclassify" their employees, Fridell said.
One business group is hoping for a broad interpretation.
"The bottom line is that to be profitable, employers need to have a sufficient number of supervisors to effectively manage and direct their business operations," said Elizabeth Gaudio of the National Federation of Independent Business Legal Foundation in Washington, D.C.
The labor board is deliberating "the proper legal standards" for determining whether a nurse or certain other skilled employees are supervisors and are thus excluded from union protection.
The decision will hinge on the workers' use of "independent judgment" to direct others. Two health care facilities and a manufacturer in the Kentucky River cases before the labor board say such employees are supervisors. These cases are named for another case, involving Kentucky River Community Care in 2001, in which the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the labor board's interpretation of "independent judgment."
Previous rulings from the board, which at the time was largely Democratic, sided with unions and declared such employees nonsupervisory. The current board has hinted it may see things differently.
In a recent statement it said, "The board is bound by the decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court."
Republican-dominated boards have a history of "not being pro-collective bargaining," said James Gross, a professor of labor law and labor policy at Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations.
Still, the the ruling's effect will depend on its scope, said Professor Richard Hurd, also of Cornell.
"Given the members of the board, it is likely it will tend toward the management decision," he said. "It's not clear how comprehensive the decision will be."