A former Chairman of the NLRB, Peter Schaumber (R), blogs about the procedural and substantive issues with the current Board reconsidering the rules governing appropriate bargaining units in nursing homes. UNder consideration is a Board rule that would permit unions to organize sub-groups of nursing home employees, rather than have to attain majority status in larger units of most non-supervisory employees of a facility.  He is correct that proposed changes would seem to be contrary to the Congressional admonition to avoid a proliferation of such units, and equally correct that a change would favor union organizing. He's a tad over the top, however, in his criticism about changing settled precedent. The pending case on the issue is Specialty Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center of Mobile. The amicus briefs of the U. S. Chamber of Commerce are here.

The U. S. Chamber of Commerce has released a new survey which purports to reflect the public's views on card check and unions. I'm sure the smart people on both sides will find things to disagree about in the survey's findings. To me there are two very interesting points. First, overall support for organized labor has dropped dramatically since 2008. Second, a whopping 70% of those surveyed had heard *nothing* about EFCA.