🗞️ A Union, Two Units, One Contested Merger: NLRB Orders Decertification Vote at Washington Fabricator
An NLRB regional director ruled that a sheet metal union's certified bargaining unit at Holaday-Parks, Inc. did not merge into a larger existing unit, clearing the way for a decertification election among roughly five Richland, Washington employees.
A regional director for the National Labor Relations Board has ordered a mail ballot election that will let a small group of technicians and specialists at Holaday-Parks, Inc., a Richland, Washington mechanical contractor, vote on whether to remove Local 55 of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers as their bargaining representative.
The dispute turned on a technical but consequential question in labor law: once a union is certified to represent one group of workers, can that unit later be absorbed into a separate, larger unit the same union already represents, without a formal election covering the merger itself? Local 55 argued that a 2025 memorandum of understanding it signed with the employer, which resolved a grievance and an unfair labor practice charge, showed that the certified unit had folded into the company's broader unionized workforce under a preexisting agreement known as the Standard Form of Union Agreement. If that reading held, the smaller unit could no longer be decertified on its own.
Regional Director Ronald K. Hooks disagreed. Under the Board's longstanding "unequivocal manifestation of intent" test, most recently reaffirmed in NBC Universal Media, LLC, a party claiming that two units have merged must point to clear evidence that both sides intended that result. Hooks found the evidence fell short here. The master agreement contained no language recognizing a specific bargaining unit, and the memorandum's reference to covering employees under the master contract's pay and conditions was not the same as declaring the two units combined. The Board also noted that the union itself had petitioned for the certified unit as a standalone group in 2024 and continued to describe it separately in the 2025 memorandum, undercutting its later merger argument.
With no merger established, the smaller unit remains intact and eligible for its own decertification vote. Ballots are set to go out July 20, 2026, with counting scheduled for August 12 in Seattle. The employer took no position on the merger question, and either party may still seek Board review of the decision.
Key Points
- The case centers on whether a certified bargaining unit merged into a larger, preexisting union unit at the same employer, which would have barred a standalone decertification vote.
- The Board applies a strict "unequivocal manifestation of intent" test for finding unit mergers, a standard with roots in 1950s precedent and reaffirmed in NBC Universal Media (2020).
- The regional director found the union's master agreement and 2025 memorandum lacked clear merger language, and the union bore the burden of proof it did not meet.
- The union's own past conduct, including petitioning for the smaller unit separately in 2024, worked against its merger argument.
- A mail ballot election is scheduled, with ballots mailed July 20, 2026, and counted August 12, 2026.
- The employer took no position on the merger dispute; either party may request Board review of the ruling.
Primary Source Author: Ronald K. Hooks, Regional Director, National Labor Relations Board, Region 19
Primary Source: Decision and Direction of Election, Holaday-Parks-Fabricators, Inc. d/b/a Holaday-Parks, Inc., Case 19-RD-388539 (July 9, 2026)
Primary Source Link: NLRB Case 19-RD-388539
Supplemental Links Used in Analysis:
