🗞️ When Slow Bargaining Isn't Bad Faith: NLRB Blocks a Union Decertification Vote in Illinois

A National Labor Relations Board regional director has dismissed an employee's petition to decertify a union representing workers at a senior living facility in Deerfield, Illinois, finding that a labor law doctrine known as the "successor bar" continues to shield the union from a vote, even though the two sides had not held a single bargaining session in the eight months since the facility changed hands.

The case centers on Sona Senior Living IL 2, LLC, which took over operations of the facility in August 2025 and, as a legal successor employer, inherited an obligation to recognize the incumbent union, Service Employees International Union Local 73. Under the Board's successor bar doctrine, first articulated in St. Elizabeth Manor and refined in the Board's 2011 UGL-UNICCO decision, a newly recognized union is shielded from decertification challenges for a "reasonable period." That period can run from six months to a year when, as in this case, the new employer sets its own workplace terms rather than adopting the predecessor's.

An individual employee filed a petition on March 31, 2026, seeking a decertification election. The union argued the petition was premature because the parties had exchanged emails about logistics, including facility access and bargaining committee pay, but had never actually scheduled or held a bargaining session. The employer countered that the union had dragged its feet and effectively forfeited the protection through inaction. It also argued that the doctrine itself represents an improper extension of Board authority, an argument the regional director rejected as resting on a misapplication of the Supreme Court's Loper Bright decision, which she noted concerns judicial review standards rather than the validity of the doctrine itself.

Reviewing the correspondence, the regional director found no evidence of the "inexcusable procrastination" that can forfeit the bar's protection, a standard drawn from Dominguez Valley Hospital and applied in a 2022 case involving American Medical Response Ambulance Service. She noted that the union raised the subject of bargaining promptly after learning of the ownership change, and that the employer never complained about delay or offered its own proposed dates. Because bargaining had not commenced, the six month to one year reasonable period had not lapsed, and the decertification petition was dismissed. The employer may seek Board review of the ruling by July 24, 2026.

Key Points

• The employer, Sona Senior Living IL 2, LLC, became a "successor" employer in August 2025 and set its own initial employment terms rather than adopting the predecessor's contract, triggering a six month to one year bargaining protection period for the union under Board precedent.
• An individual petitioner filed to decertify SEIU Local 73 on March 31, 2026, before any formal bargaining session had taken place.
• The regional director found the union's conduct did not amount to "inexcusable procrastination" or bad faith, noting that the union reached out promptly and that the employer never pressed for earlier bargaining dates.
• The employer's argument that the successor bar doctrine is unlawful, based on the Supreme Court's Loper Bright ruling, was rejected because that case addresses court deference standards, not the doctrine's substance.
• The petition was dismissed, and the union retains its bargaining status while negotiations proceed. The employer has until July 24, 2026, to request Board review.

Primary Source Author: Angie Cowan Hamada, Regional Director, National Labor Relations Board Region 13

Primary Source: Decision and Order Dismissing Petition, Sona Senior Living IL 2, LLC, Case 13-RD-383878 (NLRB Region 13, July 10, 2026)

Primary Source Link: https://www.nlrb.gov/case/13-RD-383878

Supplemental Links

• NLRB Imposes "Successor Bar" and Defines a "Reasonable Period" for Bargaining (Littler Mendelson)
• The NLRB Overrules Prior Decisions to Reinstate Recognition Bar and Successor Bar Protections (Crowell & Moring)
• NLRB's Revised Successor Bar Doctrine Upheld by Federal Appellate Court (Shawe Rosenthal)
• Before You Acquire That Business, Understand the NLRB's Successor Bar Doctrine (Amundsen Davis)
• First Circuit: NLRB Correct That Successor Employer Must Bargain with Existing Union (National Law Review)
• Summary of NLRB Decisions for Week of September 26 to 30, 2022 (NLRB.gov)
• Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo Case Summary (Oyez)