FQHC Labor Relations Academy

Law & agencies

NLRA / Wagner Act

The 1935 federal law that protects most private-sector workers' right to organize, bargain collectively, and act together — and that created the NLRB.

NLRB

The National Labor Relations Board — the independent federal agency that runs union elections and investigates unfair labor practice charges.

Section 7

The heart of the NLRA: workers' right to form or join a union and to engage in 'concerted activity' for mutual aid — or to refrain from it.

Section 8 / Unfair Labor Practice (ULP)

Conduct the NLRA prohibits: §8(a) covers employer violations (threats, surveillance, retaliation); §8(b) covers union violations.

Duty of Fair Representation

A union's legal duty to represent every worker in the unit fairly — without discrimination, bad faith, or arbitrariness.

California PERB

The Public Employment Relations Board governs labor relations for many California public-sector and county health workers (the NLRB covers private nonprofits).

SB 525

California's healthcare minimum-wage law; for FQHCs it steps from $21/hr to $22 (July 2026) to $25 (July 2027), setting the floor under any bargaining.

Organizing process

Bargaining unit

The defined group of employees a union seeks to (or does) represent, sharing a 'community of interest.'

Exclusive representative

Once certified, the union is the sole representative for everyone in the unit on wages, hours, and working conditions.

Authorization card

A card a worker signs to support union representation; a showing of about 30% is needed to petition for an election.

RC petition

The filing that asks the NLRB to hold a representation election for a proposed bargaining unit.

Certification election

The secret-ballot vote, run by the NLRB, in which the unit decides whether to be represented by the union.

Voluntary recognition

When an employer agrees to recognize a union based on a majority showing of support, without an election.

Bargaining

Collective bargaining agreement (CBA)

The written union contract setting wages, benefits, and working conditions for the bargaining unit.

Good-faith bargaining

The legal duty of both sides to meet and bargain sincerely — though neither side is required to agree to any specific proposal.

Impasse

A genuine deadlock after good-faith bargaining, which carries specific legal consequences for both sides.

BATNA

Your 'best alternative to a negotiated agreement' — the benchmark that tells each side when to settle and when to walk away.

Interest-based bargaining

A problem-solving approach that focuses on each side's underlying interests rather than fixed positions.

Just cause

The contract standard requiring fair, proven reasons and due process before an employer disciplines or discharges a worker.

Grievance

The contractual process for resolving a claimed contract violation, often ending in binding arbitration.

Rights & action

Concerted activity

Two or more workers acting together (or one acting on behalf of others) on a workplace concern — protected by §7.

Weingarten rights

A union worker's right to request a representative in an investigatory interview that could lead to discipline.

ULP vs. economic strike

A strike protesting unfair labor practices generally gives workers stronger reinstatement rights than a purely economic strike over contract terms.

Shop steward

A frontline union member who handles grievances, answers coworkers' questions, and represents them day to day.

Partnership

Labor-management partnership (LMP)

A structured, ongoing collaboration — like Kaiser Permanente's — where labor and management solve problems jointly rather than only at the table.

Unit-based team

A frontline team of workers, managers, and clinicians who improve quality and operations together.

• Community Health Centers: A Movement and the People Who Made It HappenBonnie Lefkowitz · Rutgers University Press · 2007The definitive narrative history of the community health center movement — from the 1960s OEO neighborhood health centers to the modern FQHC.
• Out in the Rural: A Mississippi Health Center and Its War on PovertyThomas J. Ward Jr. · Oxford University Press · 2017The story of Dr. H. Jack Geiger's Delta Health Center in Mound Bayou — one of the first U.S. community health centers and a model for the movement.
• The Welga Project — Filipino American Labor & the Delano Grape StrikeBulosan Center for Filipino Studies, UC DavisA digital archive documenting the Filipino farmworkers — Larry Itliong and the AWOC — who launched the 1965 Delano grape strike that helped seed California's community-organizing tradition.
• There Is Power in a Union: The Epic Story of Labor in AmericaPhilip Dray · Doubleday · 2010A sweeping narrative history of the American labor movement — the strikes, laws, and people that built today's workplace rights.
• Raising Expectations (and Raising Hell): My Decade Fighting for the Labor MovementJane McAlevey · Verso · 2012A frontline memoir of modern healthcare-sector organizing from an organizer who spent years in SEIU's healthcare campaigns.

• The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) — §7 & §8National Labor Relations BoardThe primary text of the law: §7 (protected concerted activity), §8 (unfair labor practices by employers AND unions), and how the NLRB runs elections and hears charges.
• The NLRB Process — Elections & ChargesNational Labor Relations BoardHow a representation petition, election, certification, and unfair-labor-practice charge actually move through the NLRB.
• The Legal Rights of Union StewardsRobert M. Schwartz · Work Rights PressThe standard pocket guide for stewards — Weingarten rights, information requests, just cause, and handling discipline and grievances.
• Labor Law for the Rank & Filer: Building Solidarity While Staying Clear of the LawStaughton Lynd & Daniel Gross · PM PressA worker-side primer on protected concerted activity and what the law does — and doesn't — allow on the shop floor.
• California Public Employment Relations Board (PERB)State of CaliforniaMany county and public safety-net health workers fall under PERB, not the NLRB — know which framework governs your workplace.

• Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving InRoger Fisher & William Ury · Penguin · 2011 (3rd ed.)The foundational text on interest-based negotiation — separate people from the problem, focus on interests, and know your BATNA.
• How to Win Past Practice GrievancesRobert M. Schwartz · Work Rights PressA practical guide to building and winning grievances — the day-to-day mechanism that makes a contract real.
• SB 525 — California Health Care Worker Minimum WageCalifornia Department of Industrial RelationsThe official schedule and FAQ for the healthcare minimum wage that sets the floor under FQHC bargaining ($21 → $22 in July 2026 → $25 in July 2027).

• Healing Together: The Labor-Management Partnership at Kaiser PermanenteKochan, Eaton, McKersie & Adler · Cornell University Press (ILR) · 2009The definitive study of the largest labor-management partnership in U.S. healthcare — unit-based teams, interest-based bargaining, and shared gains.
• Kaiser Permanente Labor Management PartnershipCoalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions & Kaiser PermanenteThe living model: how unions and management run unit-based teams, solve problems jointly, and bargain through interests rather than positions.

• NACHC — Community Health Center WorkforceNational Association of Community Health CentersNational workforce data, advocacy, and training for community health centers — the sector view behind local labor relations.
• California Health Care Foundation — Community Clinics AlmanacCalifornia Health Care Foundation (CHCF)California-specific data on FQHC finances, patients, and the workforce conditions that shape what's possible at the bargaining table.
• California Budget & Policy Center — Safety-Net WorkforceCalifornia Budget & Policy CenterIndependent analysis of wages, the state budget, and the policy choices that ripple into FQHC pay and staffing.

• Labor Relations MonitorLive tracker of active California FQHC labor cases — NLRB charges, ballot measures, strikes, and organizing — with a posture spectrum from adversarial to partnership.
• Union Directory & Labor PartnershipProfiles of the unions in California FQHC labor, the 1798–present labor timeline, and the common-interest framework (patients · staff · organization).
• The FQHC MovementThe history that connects community health and labor — events across five eras and the cross-cultural alliances behind them.
• Salary IntelligenceBenchmarks by role and region (P25 / P50 / P75) — the numbers behind any honest conversation about pay.