A U.S. appeals court in Cincinnati has upheld the National Labor Relations Board’s decision in Specialty Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center, 357 NLRB No. 83 (2011), allowing unions to organize in small units of employees, where their likelihood of success is heightened. Kindred Nursing Centers East f/k/a Specialty Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center of Mobile v. NLRB

On August 30 the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued its long-awaited decision in Specialty Healthcare & Rehabilitation Center of Mobile, in which it announced a new standard for determining what constitutes an appropriate bargaining unit in non-acute health care facilities.

The union in Specialty Healthcare sought to represent a unit consisting only of