Senate GOP tackles controversial ‘micro-unions’

Senate Republicans are getting behind an effort to block employees from forming multiple unions within a single company.

The Representation Fairness Restoration Act introduced Thursday by Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) would target small bargaining units better known as “micro-unions.”

The National Labor Relations Board has begun recognizing micro-unions that are popping up at different companies.

{mosads}Micro-unions allow small groups of employees, such as the shoe salesmen at a department store or the servers at a restaurant, to organize their own union that doesn’t include other employees at the same company.

Republicans say this allows unions to “handpick” the employees who will join a union in cases where the majority of the workforce does not want to organize.

The new legislation would block this practice so that employees at each workplace could have only one union.

“When the National Labor Relations Board decided to allow micro unions, they tipped the scales dramatically in favor of unions and neglected 77 years’ worth of precedent in collective bargaining,” Isakson said in a statement.

The bill has 13 Republican co-sponsors, including Senate Labor Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (Tenn.).

“The NLRB’s decision to allow micro-unions divides workplaces and makes it harder and more expensive for employers to manage their workplace and do business,” Alexander said.