• Unions are made up of bargaining units.
• Only “employees” as defined by the Act can be included in a unit.

Unions are made up of bargaining units, which are groups of two or more employees who:

• Share a community of interest; and
• May reasonably be grouped together for purposes of collective bargaining.

The determination of what is an appropriate unit for such purposes is left to the discretion of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

A bargaining unit may cover the employees in one plant, or it may cover employees in two or more plants of the same employer. In some industries in which employers are grouped together in voluntary associations, a unit may include employees of two or more employers in any number of locations.

It should be noted that a bargaining unit can include only people who are “employees” within the meaning of the Act. The Act excludes certain individuals, such as:

• Agricultural laborers
• Independent contractors
• Supervisors
• Managers

None of these individuals can be included in a bargaining unit established by the NLRB, and as a matter of policy, the NLRB excludes employees who act in a confidential capacity to an employer’s labor relations officials as well.