RILA Backs Senator’s Push to Halt Micro-unions

The Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) has thrown its “strong support” behind Sen. Johnny Isakson’s (R-GA) ongoing efforts to reverse the National Labor Relation Board’s (NLRB) decision allowing for the formation of micro-unions within a workplace -- a decision the Arlington, Va.-based trade organization has called “flawed.”

On March 22, Isakson introduced an amendment to the Senate budget resolution that would prevent funding for the application and enforcement of the standard creating micro-unions, which would return bargaining unit determinations to the long-standing bipartisan standard that existed before the NLRB’s 2011 Specialty Healthcare decision.

“Micro-unions will cause division within the retail workforce, leading to conflicts and complexities that will negatively affect employees and customers,” explained RILA SVP for Government Affairs Bill Hughes, who wrote a letter to Isakson to assure him of the association's backing. “We applaud Senator Isakson’s continued effort to … reverse the decision and prevent the undue harm it will surely cause.”

Recent efforts to reverse the Specialty Healthcare decision have attracted bipartisan support in both the Senate and House of Representatives. Last year, a similar amendment voted on in the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor and Health and Human Services earned support across the aisle, but failed on a 15-15 vote. In 2011, the House voted 235-188 in favor of H.R. 3094, the Workforce Democracy and Fairness Act, which would have overturned Specialty Healthcare.