344 Human Resources Management for Public and Nonprofi t Organizations
money or goods and a labor dispute might disrupt that fl ow of commerce,
the board would take jurisdiction. The board established a jurisdictional
standard of $ 250,000 annual revenue for all social service agencies other
than those for which there is another specifi c standard application for the
type of activity in which the organization is engaged. For example, the specifi c
$ 100,000 standard still applies for a nursing home (Feldacker, 1990).
The NLRB asserts jurisdiction over nonprofi t service organizations
that provide services to or for an exempt governmental agency such as
Head Start, child care services, and medical clinics supported by state
or federal funds (Feldacker, 1990). Some of these agencies have argued
that they are excluded by the NLRA by the exemption for government
agencies. The board holds that such agencies are covered by the act, even
though they are government funded, if they retain independence in labor -
management matters, such as establishing the wages, hours, and working
conditions of their employees. The sole standard for taking jurisdiction is
whether the contractor has “ suffi cient control over the employment condi-
tions of its employees to enable it to bargain with a labor organization as
its representative. ” The board looks closely at the nature of the relationship
between the government institution and the contractor.
An interesting issue of jurisdiction surfaced in National Labor Relations
Board v. Catholic Bishop of Chicago (1979). The Supreme Court held that the
NLRB cannot assert jurisdiction over church - operated schools because such
jurisdiction would violate the First Amendment establishment of freedom
of religion and the separation of church and state. The Court held that the
religious and secular purposes of church - sponsored schools are so inter-
twined that the board ’ s jurisdiction would unconstitutionally introduce the
board into the operations and policies of the church.
The board does, however, assert jurisdiction over church - operated, non-
profi t social agencies such as nursing homes, hospitals, and child care centers
because they function essentially the same as their secular counterparts: they
receive government fi nancial support, they are regulated by the state along
with other nonprofi t social agencies, and their activities only tangentially
relate to the sponsoring organization ’ s religious mission (Feldacker, 1990).Collective Bargaining in the Federal Government
The Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 (CSRA) governs labor relations in the
federal sector. It covers most employees of the executive agencies of
the United States, including the Library of Congress and the Government