Labor Relations Law Blog

On January 12, President Trump selected Republican John Ring to fill the vacancy created last month by Philip Miscimarra's departure from the five-member National Labor Relations Board. If Ring is confirmed by the Senate, the NLRB will have three Republican and two Democrat members.

On Friday night, right before Chairman Philip Miscimarra’s term ended with the National Labor Relations Board, the Board capped its flurry of rulings by issuing one more decision favorable to employers: PCC Structurals, Inc., 365 NRLB No. 160 (Dec. 15, 2017). This decision overruled the NLRB’s 2011 Specialty Healthcare ruling that permitted unions to organize “micro-units” of employees for voting purposes unless the employer could prove an “overwhelming community of interest” between the petitioned-for employees and other employees. Because it was almost impossible to prove an overwhelming community of interest and because the resulting micro-units frequently were those employees most favorable to unionization, employers often faced a difficult challenge contacting a union’s grouping of employees for organizing.

The National Labor Relations Board gained a Republican majority less than three months ago, but has already disposed of many of the prior Administration’s labor law rules. Just this past week, the NLRB issued 13 decisions, including several important rulings favorable to employers. This bevy of rulings is understandable, given that NLRB Chairman Philip Miscimarra, a Republican, retired on Friday.

In ...

Last week, the U.S. Senate confirmed Peter Robb as General Counsel for the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Robb previously represented employers in labor law matters. As General Counsel, Robb will oversee the NLRB in its headquarters in Washington, DC and in its field offices throughout the country. The NLRB’s former General Counsel, Obama-appointee Richard Griffin, had previously served as ...

A case from New York highlights the distinct labor law challenges for employers trying to do business in both union and non-union markets. In some instances, a company may have decided to set up union and non-union entities to operate independently of each other. In other instances, a unionized employer may have created a non-union entity to try to evade the legal and contractual obligations flowing from a ...

It seems to be increasingly the case that employers find themselves facing conflicting demands from labor unions for assignments of work.  Such competing claims are often referred to as jurisdictional disputes.  In other circumstances, employers may find themselves faced with a labor union’s claims that the employer does not provide employees with “area standard” wages or benefits.  While often ...

Employers that have become exasperated at the regulatory zeal of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in the area of workplace policies scored a welcome victory in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.  In T-Mobile USA, Inc. v. National Labor Relations Board, 2017 WL 3138612 (5th Cir. July 25, 2017), the Fifth Circuit refused to enforce an NLRB order that declared that an employee handbook policy requiring ...

On July 24th, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the district court’s dismissal of an antitrust claim against a labor union and a multi-employer collective bargaining association. In International Longshore and Warehouse Union et al. v. ICTSI Oregon, Inc. (9th Cir., July 24, 2017), 2017 WL 3122767, the Court of Appeals held that actions taken jointly by the International Longshore and Warehouse ...

On July 3rd, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit decided a case involving the interplay between Sections 7 and 10(c) of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). On the one hand, employers may not discharge employees for engaging in activities protected by Section 7 of the NLRA, including employees’ communications to third parties or to the public that seek to improve their lot as employees. On the ...

On June 27th, President Trump announced the selection of William Emanuel, an experienced management-side labor attorney in private practice, for the second of two vacancies on the National Labor Relations Board. The NLRB oversees and adjudicates union elections and disputes between employers, workers, and unions. It also enacts rules and regulations in furtherance of its role to enforce the National ...