One of the biggest sources of job gains in September was temporary jobs, which grew by 33,000. Temporary staffing firms added 48,000 jobs in October, according to the Labor Department. There are about 2.5 million temporary workers in the workforce today, and the hiring of temps has accounted for nearly half of the private jobs created since the beginning of 2002.
The AFL-CIO said the decision was one of several where the NLRB is "increasingly siding with employers over workers and denying workers their federally protected rights to form unions."
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Shaiken said the new decision "more clearly defines a difference between full-time and temp workers and in certain circumstances it allows an employer to divide them more effectively."
However, some experts say the decision will ease confusion among employers.
Temporary or contract employees work for an agency that places them with the employer, so they are essentially employed by two organizations at once.
"When you have two groups of employees working in the same location, one employed by a contractor or temp agency and another employed by the main employer . . . you need to have two different bargaining units because you are really bargaining with two different employers," said Peter M. Panken, a management side labor attorney with Epstein, Becker & Green in New York City.
The ruling does not prevent temporary workers from organizing, said Kenneth R. Dolin, a partner representing management in the labor and employment practice at Seyfarth Shaw in Chicago. Workers could form a bargaining unit with other temporary workers, he said.
Labor experts and attorneys said they expect the labor board to continue to overturn Clinton-era decisions as its majority moves from Clinton appointees, who were thought to have a pro-labor bias, to Bush appointees, who are thought to have a pro-corporate bias, Panken said.
"The labor movement is really bracing for an assault," said Robert Bruno, professor of labor and industrial relations at the University of Illinois in Chicago.
