Labor Law - General

National Labor Relations Board General Counsel Richard Griffin discussed various steps the Board is taking in light of the Noel Canning decision, as well as his office’s priorities during a July 9 webinar sponsored by the American Bar Association.

The U.S. Supreme Court is just days away from releasing its recess appointment opinion in Noel Canning, which will determine whether the National Labor Relations Board will have to revisit and re-decide thousands of decisions. The validity of President Obama’s recess appointments to the NLRB, howeve

Last week, NLRB General Counsel Richard Griffin issued a memorandum to the National Labor Relations Board’s Regional Directors, outlining legal issues that the Regions cannot address without first submitting to the Board’s Division of Advice in Washington, DC. The memorandum includes a lengthy list

How are U.S. employers approaching the economic "recovery" from the recession and what strategies are being employed by them, particularly in relation to unionized workforces?

For several years, nurses’ unions have lobbied, with varying success, for legislation implementing nurse-patient ratios. The nurses’ unions contend that lower patient-to-nurse ratios improve quality patient care and decrease the mortality rate. While Medicare regulations require hospitals to maintai

In 2011, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued a regulatory mandate requiring many employers to post a notice of union rights in the workplace. After a series of court battles, during which the posting rule was postponed, the NLRB appears to have given up the fight.

Executive Summary: The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has announced that it will not seek Supreme Court review of the decisions of two federal appeals courts that invalidated the Board's Notice Posting Rule. The Rule would have required all private sector employers covered by the National Lab

The National Labor Relations Board’s legal attempt to revive its notice posting rule issued in August 2011 has run its course. The rule – Notification of Employee Rights under the National Labor Relations Act – would have required employers to conspicuously display a notice informing employees of th

An administrative law judge recently held that a hospital violated the National Labor Relations Act by refusing to provide the National Nurses Union (NNU) with copies of an internal nurse research and quality survey and staffing matrix. According to the ALJ, while substantial claims of confidentiali

As part of its new initiative to court younger affiliates and expand its membership, the AFL-CIO has entered into a National Partnership Agreement with the United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS), touted as “the nation's largest youth-­led campaign organization dedicated to building a student-­lab

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) recently announced that it would enter the world of smartphone and tablet applications (better known as “apps”) and provide employers, employees and unions with information regarding their rights and obligations under the National Labor Relations Act.

On August 26, 2013, in Waugh Chapel South, LLC v. UFCW (4th Cir. 2013), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit delivered a victory, in part, to employers and, in part, to labor. In its decision, the Fourth Circuit expanded the scope of activity subject to the secondary boycott proscription

During a hearing conducted by the House Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions, Littler Shareholder Stefan Marculewicz explained the role that worker centers, also referred to as union front organizations (UFOs), play in modern labor organizing. Such worker centers, Marculewicz test

The AFL-CIO convention ended yesterday, but not before some fireworks over the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Certain aspects of the healthcare law – particularly ACA’s impact on multi-employer healthcare plans – have caused a great deal of consternation for unions. The concern over the law’s effect on

On day three of the AFL-CIO annual convention, delegates adopted a number of resolutions that provide insight into the organization’s priorities for the coming year. As discussed in yesterday’s coverage of the event, the AFL-CIO adopted two resolutions – Resolution 5: A Broad, Inclusive and Effectiv

As expected, the second day of the annual AFL-CIO convention focused on ways to create and promote “new forms” of union membership that would appeal to younger workers and nonunion members. In his keynote address, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka strongly supported aligning labor with non-labor grou

The AFL-CIO kicked off its annual convention on Sunday with the expected amount of fanfare. As we have discussed in detail, the labor organization is in the process of reinventing itself in an effort to boost its declining membership.

Now that two federal appellate courts have invalidated the National Labor Relations Board’s rule requiring private sector employers to post a notice informing employees of their rights under the National Labor Relations Act, the Board has developed a new way to disseminate this information. On Augus

In Community Options NY, Inc., 359 NLRB No. 165 (2013), the Board condoned the bribing of employees to vote against decertification by waiving union dues. Strong words, but no other conclusion can be reached after reviewing the Board’s decision.

In July 2013, the AFL-CIO released a report in advance of its annual convention that provides a blueprint of how the labor movement intends to reinvent itself. The document – Interim Report to the AFL-CIO Executive Council on AFL-CIO Pre-Convention Outreach and Engagement – discusses the organizatio