🗞️ Chemical Maker Ordered to Negotiate With Lab Workers After 18-Month Standoff

The National Labor Relations Board has ordered a specialty chemical manufacturer to begin contract negotiations with a newly organized group of laboratory analysts, concluding that the company's refusal to recognize the workers' certified union representative violated federal labor law.

In a decision issued May 22, 2026, the NLRB ruled that Kuraray America, Inc., a Delaware-incorporated subsidiary of Tokyo-based Kuraray Co., Ltd. and operator of a production facility in La Porte, Texas, violated the National Labor Relations Act by declining to recognize and bargain with the International Chemical Workers Union Council/United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, Local 900C. The Board granted the General Counsel's motion for summary judgment, finding that Kuraray had not raised any new issues warranting further hearing.

The dispute traces back to October 9, 2024, when laboratory analysts at Kuraray's La Porte plant voted, by a 71 percent margin according to the union, to join ICWUC Local 900C in a self-determination election, a process by which a previously unrepresented group of workers decides whether to join an already-existing bargaining unit. In this instance, that unit covers employees in the facility's production and maintenance departments, which handle vinyl acetate monomer (VAM) and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) operations and were already represented by the same local.

The Regional Director certified the union on October 21, 2024. Three days later, on October 24, the union submitted its first written request to bargain. Kuraray declined on November 4, and again in December 2024 and March 2025, each time by email.

The company contested the certification on the grounds that the laboratory analysts did not share a sufficient "community of interest" with the production and maintenance workers already in the unit, a legal threshold used to determine whether employees appropriately belong in the same bargaining group. That argument had been raised and resolved in the underlying representation proceeding, and Kuraray did not offer any newly discovered or previously unavailable evidence to support reopening the question.

Kuraray also filed a request for review of the Regional Director's Decision and Direction of Election. The Board denied that request on April 9, 2026.

In its opposition to summary judgment, the company raised a series of constitutional arguments, including claimed violations of the Fifth and Seventh Amendments, separation of powers concerns, and objections under the Administrative Procedure Act. The Board dismissed each. On the Seventh Amendment, it cited the Supreme Court's holding in NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp., 301 U.S. 1 (1937), which established that Congress may assign adjudication of rights created by the NLRA to the Board without implicating the constitutional right to a jury trial. On removal protections for Board members and administrative law judges, the Board cited Collins v. Yellen, 594 U.S. 220 (2021), finding that Kuraray had demonstrated no actual harm from the challenged provisions.

Section 8(a)(5) of the National Labor Relations Act makes it an unfair labor practice for an employer to refuse to bargain collectively with the certified representative of its employees. Under established Board precedent, an employer's duty to bargain attaches when the certification of representative issues, not after any pending challenges are resolved.

The Board, composed of Chairman James R. Murphy and Members David M. Prouty and Scott A. Mayer, ordered Kuraray to cease its refusal to bargain, to negotiate with the union upon request, and to post notices at its La Porte facility for 60 consecutive days informing employees of their rights under federal law. Those notices must also be distributed electronically if the company routinely communicates with employees through such channels. Kuraray has 21 days from service to file a sworn compliance certification with NLRB Region 16.

The Board declined to extend the certification year, a remedy occasionally applied to give newly certified unions additional negotiating time, finding it inapplicable in cases arising from self-determination elections, consistent with prior Board precedent.

Key Points

• Laboratory analysts at Kuraray America's La Porte, Texas plant voted by a 71 percent margin, according to the union, to join ICWUC Local 900C on October 9, 2024, in a self-determination election to be added to an existing bargaining unit
• The NLRB certified the union on October 21, 2024; Kuraray refused to bargain beginning November 4, 2024, contesting the appropriateness of the bargaining unit
• Kuraray raised constitutional objections including Fifth and Seventh Amendment claims, separation of powers arguments, and APA objections, all of which the three-member Board unanimously rejected
• The NLRB granted the General Counsel's Motion for Summary Judgment, finding no new issues warranting a hearing beyond what had already been litigated in the underlying representation proceeding
• The Board ordered Kuraray to recognize and bargain with the union, post notices to employees for 60 consecutive days, and file a compliance certification within 21 days
• A certification year extension was denied, as that remedy does not apply in self-determination election cases

Primary Source Author: NLRB Board (Chairman James R. Murphy, Members David M. Prouty and Scott A. Mayer)

Primary Source: Kuraray America, Inc. and International Chemical Workers Union Council/UFCW Local 900C, 374 NLRB No. 119, Case 16-CA-364229 (May 22, 2026)

Primary Source Link: www.nlrb.gov/case/16-CA-364229

Supplemental References

• ICWUC Local 900C election announcement: Lab Workers at Kuraray America Vote to Join ICWUC Local 900C
• NLRB orders Kuraray America to bargain with union unit, Plastics News
• NLRB: Bargaining in good faith with employees' union representative (Section 8(a)(5))
• National Labor Relations Act, Full Text
• Kuraray America, Inc., Company Website