In the latest move by the National Labor Relations Board ("the Board") making it easier for unions to organize, the Board ruled on December 30, 2011, that unions may now target select groups of employees instead of organizing larger groups of employees with general common interests company- or facility-wide. In a case involving Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding, Inc., the Board affirmed a Regional Director's order directing an election for a union-selected unit consisting only of nuclear safety technicians at a shipyard that builds nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and submarines. In other words, the Board allowed the union to carve out only the technicians the union wanted to organize, ignoring the other technicians at the facility even though they shared some community of interests with the nuclear safety technicians. Continue reading >