## Facts

- Alaska Nurses Association (the association) petitioned the Alaska Labor Relations Agency (ALRA) to certify it as the exclusive representative of a bargaining unit limited to seven non-supervisory registered nurses at Wrangell Medical Center (Wrangell).
- Wrangell Medical Center was a relatively small public health-care facility that provided both acute and long-term care to a small patient population.
- The facility’s workforce included approximately 12 supervisory employees and about 54 non-supervisory employees in a range of classifications (including clinical, technical, and support roles such as laundry and other services).
- Because of the facility’s small size, employees in different classifications worked in close proximity, interacted frequently, and performed interrelated work in delivering patient care.
- Registered nurses had a central role in patient care, but other non-supervisory employees regularly assisted and worked with nurses as part of a coordinated care team.
- Employees generally shared similar employment terms and conditions, including hourly compensation structures, similar hours, and common workplace policies and benefits.
- No employees at Wrangell were represented by a union at the time of the petition, and interest in union representation was not uniform across all job classifications.
- Wrangell opposed the proposed nurses-only unit, arguing that it would create “unnecessary fragmentation” contrary to AS 23.40.090, and urged ALRA to require a wall-to-wall unit of all non-supervisory employees.
- ALRA held proceedings to determine the unit “appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining” under Alaska’s Public Employment Relations Act (PERA), including evidence about job duties, workplace integration, and terms and conditions of employment.

## Issues

1. Does AS 23.40.090’s direction to avoid “unnecessary fragmentation” apply to an initial petition for certification, or only to severance-type disputes?
2. Should ALRA apply federal NLRA/NLRB health-care unit standards when determining an appropriate bargaining unit for a public health-care facility under PERA?
3. Is a separate bargaining unit limited to seven non-supervisory registered nurses appropriate at Wrangell Medical Center, or must the appropriate unit include all non-supervisory employees?

## Decision

- ALRA held that AS 23.40.090’s requirement to avoid unnecessary fragmentation applies to appropriate-unit determinations in initial certification petitions.
- ALRA declined to treat NLRA/NLRB health-care unit rules as controlling for unit determinations under PERA.
- ALRA determined that a nurses-only unit of seven non-supervisory registered nurses, excluding all other employees, would result in unnecessary fragmentation at Wrangell.
- ALRA found the unit appropriate for collective bargaining at Wrangell Medical Center was a wall-to-wall unit of all non-supervisory employees.
- ALRA denied certification of the proposed nurses-only unit and remanded the matter to agency staff to determine whether the association had a sufficient showing of interest for the wall-to-wall non-supervisory unit.

## Legal Principles

- Under AS 23.40.090, ALRA must decide the bargaining unit “appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining” by considering community-of-interest factors such as wages, hours, and working conditions, while also avoiding unnecessary fragmentation.
- The statutory direction against unnecessary fragmentation is not limited to unit-splitting or severance cases; it also constrains unit choices in initial representation petitions.
- Federal labor law standards may be consulted for comparison, but PERA’s statutory text and Alaska public-sector labor policy govern ALRA’s unit analysis.
- In a small, closely connected health-care workplace where employees across classifications share common terms and conditions of employment and work in coordinated patient-care teams, ALRA may reject an occupation-only micro-unit as unnecessarily fragmenting the workforce.
- When ALRA determines that a broader unit is appropriate than the one requested, ALRA may deny the requested unit and send the case back for a showing-of-interest determination for the proper unit before moving forward with an election process.

## Conclusion

In *Alaska Nurses Association v. Wrangell Medical Center*, ALRA ruled that PERA’s statutory bar on unnecessary fragmentation applies to initial unit petitions and, given Wrangell’s small and closely connected operations and shared working conditions across job classifications, a nurses-only unit of seven non-supervisory registered nurses was not appropriate; ALRA required a wall-to-wall unit of all non-supervisory employees and remanded for a showing of interest in that broader unit.


Alaska Nurses Association v. Wrangell Medical Center, Case No. 10-1591-RC, Decision and Order No. 296 (2011)