What employers should know about union recognition, employee majority support, and bargaining obligations after a business acquisition.
The D.C. Circuit has invalidated the National Labor Relations Board’s (“NLRB”) “successor bar,” a rule that required a new owner of a unionized business to recognize and bargain with the incumbent union for up to one year after the ownership change before employees could challenge the union’s status. When an employer acquires a predecessor’s business, it is required to recognize the incumbent union if a majority of the successor’s workforce is made up of employees from its predecessor. The court held that the successor bar rule conflicts with the National Labor Relations Act because it blocks employees, employers, and rival unions from testing whether the incumbent union still represents a majority of employees.
Background
The employer, Hospital Menonita de Guayama (“Hospital”), acquired another hospital in 2017 where employees had long been… Read the complete article here...
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