United Steel, Paper & Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial & Service Workers International Union v. Kentucky West Virginia Gas Co.

MEMORANDUM OPINION & ORDER

AMUL R. THAPAR, District Judge.

With two exceptions, the National Labor Relations Act forbids bargaining with a union that does not represent a majority of the employees in an “appropriate” bargaining unit. In this case, the employees in a union-represented bargaining unit have been split up between two subsidiaries. So to decide whether the employer has an enforceable duty — contractual or statutory — to bargain with the same Union for a new agreement, one must first decide whether the employees remain an “appropriate” bargaining unit. That “primarily…