Supervisory Participation in Professional Associations: Implications of North Shore University Hospital

Abstract

A recent ruling by a circuit court—in NLRB v. North Shore University Hospital—prohibited a professional association from serving as a collective bargaining agent of a unit of registered nurses because the court found that statutory supervisors participated in the governance of the association. In this article, the authors analyze the case law concerning supervisory participation in professional associations; discuss nursing representation cases prior to North Shore; describe the responses of nurses' professional associations to North Shore in three states; and discuss the implications of North Shore and related decisions for the representation rights of professional employees. They also propose an analytical model for the NLRB to follow in determining whether supervisory participation in a professional association so endangers the collective bargaining process as to warrant disqualification of that association as a statutory representative.