NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS | August 18, 2017 | PAGE 7
UNION ORGANIZING
At Precision Castparts, Machinists
campaign to organize ‘micro-union’
This time, they seek to represent
a group of 102 welders
By Don McIntosh
International Association of Ma-
chinists (IAM) is making another
effort to unionize at Precision
Castparts. But unlike
four years ago, when
the company’s Port-
land-area workers re-
jected unionization in
a 1,258 to 932 vote,
this time the union is
trying to organize just
one slice of the work-
force: a group of 102
welders.
That’s possible thanks to a
2011 decision by the National
Labor Relations Board (NLRB)
in a case called Specialty Health-
care. NLRB is the federal agency
responsible for interpreting and
enforcing the federal law that
covers private sector unioniza-
tion.
You might think that since the
law recognizes workers’ right to
unionize, it would be up to the
union or the workers themselves
to decide which occupational
classifications or departments
they want to include in their
union. But the law gives employ-
ers the right to argue over what’s
an “appropriate bargaining unit”
and it gives the NLRB the au-
thority to decide that question
based on its judgment of whether
the workers have a “community
of interest.” In its Specialty
Healthcare decision, the agency
gave workers and unions greater
latitude to form what business
groups derided as
“micro-units.”
Business
groups have
thundered in
outrage at the
ruling ever
since, and it’s
expected that
the decision
will be over-
turned if and
when President Trump’s nomi-
nees to the NLRB are confirmed
by the U.S. Senate.
But for now, Precision Cast-
parts welders may get a chance
to vote on a union just for them.
The workers weld titanium and
steel cast parts for aerospace
medical devices and other uses,
for clients like GE or Rolls
Royce. Precision Castparts has
been a subsidiary of Berkshire
Hathaway since 2015.
In a three-day hearing that
concluded July 28, lawyers for
Precision Castparts argued that a
“wall-to-wall” unit of all produc-
tion and maintenance employees
is most appropriate. Machinists
District Lodge W24 organizer
Will Lukens says he hopes to see
a decision on it by the end of Au-
gust. If it goes in the union’s fa-
vor, a vote could take place as
soon as September.
Representing union members for more than
25 years in workers’ compensation and
Social Security disability cases.
1500 NE Irving Street, Suite 430 • Portland, OR 97232 • 503-243-4899