Labor

  • September 27, 2024

    NLRB Says School's 'Test-Of-Cert' Pledge Wasn't Threat

    A New York City school launched by the Blue Man Group didn't violate federal labor law by telling workers during a union ballot count that it planned to test the validity of their organizing effort by refusing to bargain should the union drive succeed, a split National Labor Relations Board panel said Friday.

  • September 27, 2024

    DC Circ. Skeptical Of Transformer Co.'s Union Vote Objections

    Judges on the D.C. Circuit pressed an attorney for power transformer company VTCU on why it believes a National Labor Relations Board-overseen vote authorizing a union for the company's workers was flawed when both sides agreed to how it would go down.

  • September 27, 2024

    Shipping Cos. Say Union Won't Bargain As Strike Looms

    A group representing shipping industry employers along the East and Gulf coasts claimed the International Longshoremen's Association violated federal labor law by refusing to negotiate for a new contract, as the union representing thousands of dockworkers gears up for a strike that could begin Oct. 1.

  • September 27, 2024

    Teamsters Say Drivers For Amazon In Queens Want Union

    The Teamsters announced Friday that a majority of workers across the eight package delivery contractors serving an Amazon warehouse in New York City's Queens borough have signed cards attesting to their support for the union.

  • September 27, 2024

    NLRB Declines To Overturn Precedent On Union Salts

    The National Labor Relations Board found that a Georgia manufacturer illegally refused to hire union organizers, but declined to overturn a handful of precedents concerning so-called union salts as the agency's top prosecutor had requested.

  • September 27, 2024

    Dish Network Litigation Director Rejoins Jackson Lewis

    Employment firm Jackson Lewis PC is welcoming back a litigator who most recently was director of litigation with Dish Network as a principal in its Denver office, the firm announced Thursday.

  • September 27, 2024

    NY Forecast: Judge Weighs $1.3M Settlement Final Approval

    This week, a New York federal judge will consider granting final approval to a $1.3 million class action settlement resolving claims that a fast food operator violated state and federal wage and hour laws by not paying workers overtime and deducting business costs from their wages.

  • September 27, 2024

    NLRB Official Approves Union Vote For CVS Pharmacists

    Two pharmacists at a Rhode Island CVS can vote on being represented by an International Association of Machinists affiliate, a National Labor Relations Board official ruled, rejecting the company's argument that the pharmacists are supervisors ineligible to unionize.

  • September 27, 2024

    Calif. Forecast: Logistics Co. Wage Deal Before Court

    In the coming week, attorneys should keep an eye out for the potential initial sign-off on a $900,000 deal to end a proposed wage and hour class action against Allegiant Final Mile Inc. Here's a look at that case and other labor and employment matters coming up in California.

  • September 26, 2024

    Feds Rip Railroads' 11th Circ. Bid To Void Train Crew Size Rule

    The U.S. Department of Transportation has told the Eleventh Circuit that its new train crew size rule is intended to promote rail safety, yet railroads have misconstrued the requirement and overblown their purported cost burdens in an effort to torpedo the rule.

  • September 26, 2024

    Dartmouth Cites Loper Bright In Arguing Against Hoops Union

    The conclusion that Dartmouth College men's basketball players are employees under federal labor law shouldn't receive deference under the U.S. Supreme Court's Loper Bright decision, according to a filing from the university, with the school refuting that it illegally refused to bargain with the players' union.

  • September 26, 2024

    Amazon Asks Texas Court To Stop NLRB Case Over NY Union

    Amazon urged a Texas federal judge Thursday to pause a National Labor Relations Board case accusing the company of refusing to bargain with the Amazon Labor Union at a New York City warehouse, saying it will appeal to the Fifth Circuit if the judge doesn't stay the proceedings.

  • September 26, 2024

    Injunction Denials Deepen Fight Over NLRB's Constitutionality

    Two recent federal court decisions denying injunctions to employers that challenged the National Labor Relations Board's constitutionality are serving as the first counterweights to the Fifth Circuit courts' acceptance of these novel theories, offering other judges a path to push back.

  • September 26, 2024

    NLRB Hits Contractor On Layoff Over Improper Filing

    A Michigan electrical contracting business must rehire a worker who was illegally laid off after he reported the company's use of nonunion contractors to a union, the National Labor Relations Board ruled. 

  • September 26, 2024

    NLRB Tells Agency Judge To Reexamine Work Rules Spat

    An administrative law judge must reconsider the lawfulness of workplace rules at an Arizona property management company, the National Labor Relations Board concluded, remanding the case for an analysis under the agency's precedent shift for employer handbook policies.

  • September 26, 2024

    Senate Recesses Without Votes On Biden NLRB Nominees

    The Senate left Washington, D.C., on Wednesday night without plans to return before the November election, leaving two nominees key to the partisan balance on the National Labor Relations Board facing uncertain futures in the chamber.

  • September 25, 2024

    Novel Labor Clause Ruling May Beg Scrutiny In Court

    A controversial demand from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for prospective contractors to recognize union organizing may stretch the limits of the government's required neutrality in contactors' labor disputes, and a ruling supporting it is likely to attract close scrutiny from courts.

  • September 25, 2024

    NLRB Knocks Starbucks For Punishing Ill. Union Backers

    Starbucks violated federal labor law by punishing one Illinois worker for missing work to fulfill a National Labor Relations Board subpoena and sending another home for clashing with customers who disrupted a labor protest, the board said Wednesday.

  • September 25, 2024

    Ex-IATSE Officer Fights Discipline After Raising Porn Issue

    A former officer for an International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees local in New Mexico accused the union of wrongly disciplining him after he spoke up with concerns about the name of another officer appearing on porn websites through an online search.

  • September 25, 2024

    US Steel Clears One Hurdle In $14B Nippon Steel Deal

    An arbitration board has sided with U.S. Steel amid its union's challenge to a planned $14.9 billion acquisition by Nippon Steel, clearing one hurdle while Nippon continues fighting on another front for approval from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S.  

  • September 25, 2024

    DOL, DOT Call On Rail Cos. To Offer Paid Sick Leave

    The U.S. departments of Labor and Transportation in a letter Wednesday called on three major freight railroad companies to guarantee paid sick leave to all of their employees.

  • September 25, 2024

    11th Circ. Must Send Back NLRB Remedies Case, Co. Says

    The Eleventh Circuit should make the NLRB hold off on seeking enforcement of a refusal-to-bargain decision while the parties wait for the agency to rule on remedies when bargaining opportunities are lost, a chemical manufacturer argued, alleging the Seventh Amendment prevents the board from issuing such relief.

  • September 25, 2024

    9th Circ. Stands By Order For Nexstar To Pay Negotiators

    Nexstar has lost its latest bid to skirt a National Labor Relations Board order compelling it to resume bargaining with a union in Portland, Oregon, and pay its worker-negotiators, with the Ninth Circuit standing by its decision to uphold the board's ruling.

  • September 24, 2024

    NLRB Office Signs Off On Near $450K Deal With Musk Brother

    A Colorado nonprofit co-founded by Elon Musk's brother settled a union's unfair labor practice claims for close to $450,000, according to a National Labor Relations Board announcement Tuesday, with the organization agreeing to pay thousands to laid-off workers and make supervisors undergo federal labor law training.

  • September 24, 2024

    Fired Welch's Factory Worker Cleared To Return To Work

    A fired Welch's factory employee can return to his job after a Pennsylvania judge upheld an arbitrator's finding that he did not commit the sexual harassment he was accused of.

Expert Analysis

  • 4 Ways Nonunion Employers Can Make Workers Feel Heard

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    With employees less likely to join the recent surge of unionizations if management proactively responds to their concerns, companies should cultivate positive relationships with their workers now, lest employees feel they must organize to amplify their voices, say Stacey McClurkin Macklin and Grant Mulkey at Stinson.

  • Independent Contractor Laws Are Ignoring Economy's Evolution

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    Over the last year, federal and state approaches to independent contractor classification have demonstrated an inability to adjust to changes in the economy — save for a 12-factor test proposed in New York City, which would have balanced gig economy prosperity and worker protections, say attorneys at Greenberg Traurig.

  • Key Employer Questions On Ill. Workers' Rights Amendment

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    With the Illinois' Workers' Rights Amendment recently voted into the state constitution despite challenges in and out of court, employers struggling to understand if the ban on right-to-work statutes applies to the private sector should follow litigation on the amendment for help interpreting its scope and applicability, say attorneys at Neal Gerber.

  • What To Know About NLRB's Expanded Labor Remedies

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    The National Labor Relations Board’s recent Thryv decision, which added "foreseeable pecuniary harms" to employee remedies for unfair labor practices, should prompt employers to recalibrate risk assessments involved in making significant employment decisions, says Manolis Boulukos at Ice Miller.

  • Top 10 Employer Resolutions For 2023

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    A recent wave of pivotal judicial, legislative and executive actions has placed an even greater responsibility on employers to reevaluate existing protocols, examine fundamental aspects of culture and employee relations, and update policies and guidelines to ensure continued compliance with the law, say Allegra Lawrence-Hardy and Bria Stephens at Lawrence & Bundy.

  • NLRB Takes Antiquated Approach To Bargaining Unit Test

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    The National Labor Relations Board's recent decision in American Steel Construction rewrites history and tries to demonstrate that the interests of the employees included in a union's proposed petitioned-for unit are superior to the interests of the employees excluded, ignoring the reality of modern organizing, say Patrick Scully and Iris Lozano at Sherman & Howard.

  • Nonstatutory Labor Antitrust Exemption Risk In Sports Unions

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    Given the increased focus on union organizing across all industries, sports leagues and other multiemployer groups should be mindful of the unresolved breadth of the nonstatutory labor exemption — which can allow individuals to bring antitrust claims during the bargaining period — as they navigate a rapidly changing legal landscape, say attorneys at Latham.

  • To Avoid A Rail Strike, Congress Tread A Well-Worn Path

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    While the congressional legislation President Joe Biden signed this week to avoid a national rail shutdown may seem extraordinary, interventions of this sort have been used a dozen times since the passage of the Railway Labor Act in 1926, making them far from unprecedented, says Charles Shewmake at Holland & Knight.

  • IRS Starts Clock On Energy Projects' Labor Rule Exemption

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    A U.S. Department of the Treasury notice published this week started the 60-day clock for clean energy projects seeking to be grandfathered from having to meet new labor requirements to qualify for enhanced tax credits, and uncertainty about how the provisions will apply should be incentive for some investors to begin construction soon, say attorneys at Eversheds Sutherland.

  • Top 10 Labor And Employment Issues In M&A Transactions

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    In order to ensure that M&A transactions come to fruition in the current uncertain environment, companies should keep several labor and employment issues in mind during the due diligence process to minimize risk, says Cassidy Mara at Akerman.

  • Does NLRA Preempt Suits Against Unions For Strike Damage?

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    The U.S. Supreme Court is taking up Glacier v. Teamsters Local 174, whose central issue is whether the National Labor Relations Act preempts state lawsuits brought against unions for causing property damage while conducting strikes, which will affect the balance of power between unions and employers during labor disputes, say Michael Warner and Jenny Lee at Franczek.

  • How Employers Can Prevent And Remedy Antisemitism

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    The Brooklyn Nets' recent suspension of Kyrie Irving for espousing antisemitism is a reminder that employers must not tolerate discrimination in the workplace, and should should take steps to stop and abate the effects of the antisemitism, says Amy Epstein Gluck at FisherBroyles.

  • Steps For 'Boys Markets' Relief For Unlawful Union Strikes

    Excerpt from Practical Guidance
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    Tony Torain at Polsinelli offers employers a practical guide to applying for injunctive relief when faced with unlawful union strikes, using principles based on the 1970 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Boys Markets v. Retail Clerks Union.

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