While much of the nation is riveted by the battle over collective bargaining by public-employee unions in Wisconsin, the National Labor Relations Board is quietly considering new rules that could lead to sweeping changes in the private sector.

In a case involving Alabama nursing home workers, the NLRB soon will decide whether to allow labor unions to organize sections of workforces as small as five to 10 employees — micro unions — rather than trying to organize the entire workplace at once.

The board’s decision in the case of Specialty Healthcare & Rehabilitation Center of Mobile has the potential to change the status of bargaining units in 6 million companies governed by the NLRB, which mediates disputes between management and workers. The agency is considering whether all employees performing the same job at a workplace make up a bargaining unit, which is the group of employees that votes in a union election and is represented by the union if it wins certification.

Dick Castner, Western regional director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, used the example of a restaurant to demonstrate how the ruling would affect workplaces through the country.

“At a restaurant, they could create separate unions for servers, busboys, dishwashers, cooks and hostesses,” he told Noozhawk. “Employers would have to negotiate wages, benefits and working conditions with each union separately — a time-consuming and contentious business. Cross training and movement between job categories would become much more complicated.”

Castner said the ruling would negatively affect productivity and employee morale.

“Employees with different contracts doing the same kind of work could create bitterness among employees if the people who negotiated contracts had better bargaining skills than others,” he said. “Also, the promotion aspect is very significant. If you’re in a very small group of five people, your promotion opportunities are likely to be within that group.”

Andy Caldwell, executive director of the Coalition of Labor, Agriculture and Business, recalled his experience as industrial relations manager of Union Sugar Co.

“(Unions) did limit our effectiveness at Union Sugar that, for instance, only an electrician could change a light bulb,” Caldwell said.

Steve Cushman, president of the Santa Barbara Region Chamber of Commerce, said unions can limit effectiveness but he understands why the NLRB is pushing unionization for the health-care market. He said unions recognize the health-care industry’s significant opportunity for growth as 70 million baby boomers prepare for retirement.

“There’s going to be hundreds of thousands of new employees who are going to enter this industry, and they’re not unionized so it’s an opportunity to capture a new marketplace,” Cushman said. “If you go to one of these convalescent or retirement homes, what you find is that the employees are paid very low wages. I think that the NLRB probably believes that this group of people could use some help.”

The government will have to step in and pay for the baby boomers’ assisted living, and unionization will only drive up the amount of care the government will subsidize, he said.

“Assisted living can cost from $4,000 to $10,000 a month,” Cushman said. “I think the average net worth of a baby boomer going into retirement is $50,000. So what’s going to happen after five years into retirement? They’re going to be broke. One way or the other, there’s going to have to be the government subsidizing the cost.

“If the health-care groups are allowed to unionize, that would certainly drive up the cost to the person staying in the home.”

That increased cost would be bad for business overall, Castner said. He said that if the NLRB approves micro unions, business would slow down overall because employers would be burdened eve more than they already are.

“It would make business owners more reluctant to expand, and they would have to devote more time to manage labor relations,” Castner said. ‘We don’t see any particular upside other than more organized employees.”

Ray McDonald, executive director of the Santa Barbara County Workforce Investment Board, said the county’s strong hospitality industry would take a hit if micro unions formed.

“I think that could make it more difficult for the smaller hospitality venues, like smaller hotels, to make ends meet,” he said. “It would affect their bottom line.”

But McDonald added that unionization would improve the benefits and salaries for many Santa Barbara residents.

Cushman noted that one of his relatives is in an assisted-care home, and the facility’s employees are probably underpaid.

“The employees are as nice as can be, and they take good care of the people there,” Cushman said. “There are about 40 employees (at the establishment), 30 to 35 of whom are Hispanic women, a group of people who probably had a difficult time getting a good job.

“Are they underpaid for the work they do? Probably,” he added. “But the rent there isn’t cheap either. How do you ensure that the people providing care are paid appropriately while the cost of staying there is so high?”

Shelley Kessler, executive secretary-treasurer for the San Mateo County Central Labor Council, said that she can see the benefits of micro unions.

“Normally in a place like a restaurant, people are stronger if they’re wall-to-wall in an environment like that than if they’re just individuals,” Kessler told Noozhawk. “Being able to advocate for very specific work rules or conditions that are particular to that group is one thing they could do, but they could also do that within a union too.

“Workers’ ability to advocate on issues that would affect bigger issues in their unit would still be available to them (without the existence of micro unions), but there may be an advantage to advocate for different things within their micro unions.”

The debate on micro unions may be an attempt on the NLRB’s part to try to keep unions alive during a time of diminishing power in the private sector.

“The labor movement in the private sector is on its death bed,” Caldwell said. “We are now part of a world economy and companies burdened with excessive costs and demands by unions have been the death knell to manufacturing and industry in this country, coupled with the environmental and regulatory burdens.”

Cushman does not foresee micro unions being allowed to form.

“I think this is aimed at just health care,” he said. “Unions are declining in size, not growing. The most powerful group of employees are public employees, but they’re under attack right now, and I think we’re going to see more of that.”

Castner remains wary. He said NLRB member Craig Becker, whom President Barack Obama made a recess appointment last year to avoid a Senate confirmation hearing, is an advocate of micro-unionization. The labor lawyer’s background includes time as associate general counsel to the AFL-CIO and the Services Employees International Union.

Castner said NLRB chairwoman Wilma Liebman does not seem to be willing to go quite as far as Becker would go in extending micro unions beyond the specialty health-care case.

The NLRB will be accepting legal briefs on the issue until March 8, and less formal letters can be sent to the Liebman or to lawmakers. Click here for more information about the Specialty Healthcare & Rehabilitation Center case.

— Noozhawk business writer Taylor Orr can be reached at torr@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @NoozhawkBiz, @noozhawk or @NoozhawkNews. Become a fan of Noozhawk on Facebook.