The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) decided in a ruling that a group of cosmetics and fragrances workers at a Macy’s store in Mass., is big enough to hold a union election with UFCW Local 1445. The ruling could also play a larger role in the labor movement by giving subsets of workers in various industries a path to become part of a bargaining unit.
The Macy’s bargaining unit in the Saugus, Mass., store is made up of 41 employees. Of them, eight are counter managers, seven are on-call employees, and the rest are cosmetics or fragrances beauty advisers, according to the NLRB ruling.
In a 3-1 decision issued Tuesday that sided with the UFCW, the board’s three Democrats said the workers at the store are an appropriate bargaining unit and share “a community of interest.” Macy’s Inc. had argued otherwise but failed to meet “its burden of demonstrating” that the smallest appropriate unit should include all employees at the store or at least all the selling employees, according to the written decision. There is no bargaining history at the Saugus store, though UFCW Macy’s workers have two collective-bargaining agreements at six other stores.
Election ballots to join UFCW Local 1445 are impounded and will be counted shortly.