Management Memo

On September 6, 2023, Governor Kathy Hochul signed into law Senate Bill 4982 and Assembly Bill 6604, which amends Section 201-D of the New York Labor Law to prohibit most employers from requiring non-managerial and non-supervisory employees to attend employer-sponsored meetings where the primary purpose is to communicate the employer’s opinions on religious or political matters. The amendment took immediate effect and makes New York the latest state to ban so-called “captive audience meetings,” following the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) General Counsel’s ...

The United States Department of Labor Office of Labor-Management Standards (“OLMS”) recently signaled an alarming willingness to use its broad subpoena powers under Section 601 of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959, as amended, 29 U.S.C. § 521 (“LMRDA” or “Act”), to examine records of explicitly lawful conduct by employers whose employees may be seeking to unionize. This effort maybe a precursor to OLMS’s plan to significantly expand employer reporting and disclosure obligations under Section 203 of the Act which requires employers and ...

It has been a decision-packed summer at the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or “Board”), and the last weeks of summer were especially active, with a number of significant decisions released at the end of August that could affect employers with non-unionized as well as unionized workforces. The following is a roundup of significant developments, in order of recency:

Board Membership Update: Member Wilcox Confirmed for a Second Term – One Vacancy Remains

On Wednesday, September 6, 2023, the Senate confirmed President Biden’s nomination of Gwynne Wilcox for a ...

Management-side attorneys and the businesses that they represent will be pleased with the Supreme Court’s holding in Glacier Northwest, Inc. v. International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

The case concerned the issue of whether the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. §§ 151–169 (“NLRA” or the “Act”), preempted a state tort claim seeking damages for harm suffered by their employer, caused by employees’ inaction in failing to deliver concrete that had already been loaded into the employer’s trucks or otherwise taking action to prevent the hardening concrete from damaging the trucks, thus intentionally destroying property owned by Glacier. Notably, the striking employees and their union knew that the trucks had been loaded when they began their strike. An eight-justice majority held that the union and its members were, on the facts of the case, not engaged in protected conduct as that term is defined under the NLRA. Justice Barrett delivered the opinion of the Court, in which the Chief Justice and Justices Sotomayor, Kagan and Kavanaugh joined. Justices Thomas, Gorsuch, and Alito concurred. As against this jurisprudentially diverse array, Justice Jackson was the only dissenter.

On April 24, 2023, just ten days after Rutgers University faculty ended their week-long strike, Governor Murphy signed bill A4772/S3215 providing workers with increased access to unemployment insurance benefits during labor disputes. The provisions of the bill include:

As featured in #WorkforceWednesday:  This week, we examine how several recent pronouncements and actions by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and its General Counsel’s office are creating new challenges for employers, both union and non-union.

On December 21, 2022, NY Governor Kathy Hochul signed into law the Warehouse Worker Protection Act (“the Act’), which will be effective February 19, 2023. As noted in Governor Hochul’s press release announcing the Act, a major driving force behind the legislation was organized labor, including the Teamsters and the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union.

On August 29, 2022, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or the “Board”) issued a decision in Tesla, Inc. regarding dress code policies that further the Biden Board’s efforts to remake NLRB policy. This decision has big implications for employers that maintain appearance, dress code, and uniform policies. The Board’s decision now firmly establishes that any employer’s uniform or dress code policy is inherently unlawful if it can be read “in any way” to prohibit employees from wearing union insignia unless an employer can prove that its policy is justified by special circumstances. It is irrelevant whether the employer’s policy has ever been applied to prohibit union t-shirts or the employer actively permits union buttons or other insignia. Further, and critical to a broader understanding of the implications of this decision, it is also irrelevant whether the workplace is unionized or even being actively unionized.

On July 21, 2021, the U.S. Senate confirmed Jennifer Abruzzo to a four-year term as the General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or “Board”). Ms. Abruzzo’s confirmation was by a vote of 51-50, with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the tie-breaking vote. Ms. Abruzzo was sworn in the next day, by NLRB Chair Lauren McFerran. As the NLRB notes, this is “the first time in NLRB history women are serving as both Chairman and General Counsel” of the agency.

Ms. Abruzzo has spent much of her career at the NLRB. She previously served as the Board’s Deputy ...

In the chaos of a global health pandemic and what some economists are calling the Great Suppression, Americans have shown amazing solidarity in the battle against the coronavirus (“COVID-19”).  Nationwide, citizens are social distancing and staying home while businesses are closing their doors and redeploying their resources to meet emergent demands.  However, this collective American commitment has come at a steep economic cost.  Millions of Americans suddenly find themselves unemployed or unable to work while previously thriving businesses have been thrown into ...

As we have discussed in prior Advisories, the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (“Coronavirus” or “COVID-19”) public health emergency is raising important issues for employers addressing rapidly developing disruptions to the workplace and the lives of employees with mass school closures, workplace closings, the need to reduce staff and expenses, etc. Employers with  unionized workforces must take certain additional considerations into account when developing and implementing response plans to the current crisis.

Under the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA” or ...

Employers in New York, the second-most unionized state in the country, have lost another key point of leverage in collective bargaining.  Effective February 6, 2020, Senate Bill 7310 reduces the amount of time striking workers in the private sector must wait before they are eligible to receive unemployment benefits.  While New York is one of only a handful of states to allow strikers to receive unemployment benefits,[1] the seven week waiting period that has applied until now, has served as a deterrent to strikes. The new, shorter waiting time has the potential to profoundly affect the ...

In its long awaited decision in Mark Janus v. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the United States Supreme Court clearly and unequivocally held that it is a violation of public employees’ First Amendment rights to require that they pay an “agency fee” to the union that is their collective bargaining representative, to cover their “fair share” of their union representative’s bargaining and contract enforcement expenses. The Janus decision overturns the Court’s own 1977 decision in Abood v. Detroit Board of Education, which had found ...

As we have previously reported, Unions currently face a serious existential threat as the unionized workforce in America continuously declines and the looming threat of a National Right to Work law steadily grows.  Recognizing that when employees have a choice, they are losing the battle for the hearts and minds, Unions have not taken these deleterious developments lying down and have deployed numerous countermeasures designed to increase their dues paying membership, including unprecedented forays into previously untouched industries and membership pools.  These efforts ...

In Midwest Division-MMC, LLC, d/b/a/ Menorah Medical Center v. NLRB, the D.C. Circuit rejected the Board’s unprecedented application of Weingarten rights to voluntary meetings, by reversing the Board's Decision that would have extended the right of employees to have union representation at meetings at which the employees’ attendance is not compelled.

Kansas state law requires hospitals to establish an internal mechanism to monitor the standard of care provided by nursing professionals.  Pursuant to this law, Menorah Medical Center (“Menorah” or ...

Featured on Employment Law This Week:  An employee’s Facebook rant was protected activity, says the Second Circuit.

In the midst of a tense union campaign, a catering company employee posted a profanity-laced message on Facebook. The post insulted his supervisor and encouraged colleagues to vote for unionization. The employee was subsequently fired. Upholding an NLRB ruling, a panel for the Second Circuit found that the post was protected under the NLRA and the employee should not have been terminated. The Court noted that Facebook is a modern tool used for organizing. Our ...

On March 21, 2017, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or “Board”) found that a Teamsters local violated Section 8(b)(1)(A) of the National Labor Relations Act (“Act”) by failing to provide sufficient information about the financial expenditures of the local and its affiliates to two workers employed in a bargaining unit who exercised their rights to object to paying union dues and fees pursuant to Communications Workers v. Beck, 487 U.S. 735 (1988).

Teamsters Local 75 – Schreiber Foods

In Teamsters Local 75, affiliated with the International Brotherhood of ...

In 2016 private sector union membership dropped to its lowest level in history – a dismal 6.4%. Given the laws and systems in place related to union membership, this means that at least 94.6% of all American private sector workers currently choose not to be union members. The drop, recently reported in a routine annual report issued by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, also was the largest year over year percentage drop in recent years, dropping 0.3%, from 6.7% in 2015.

While the percentage of union members as a portion of the total workforce saw a steep drop ...

The year-end episode of Employment Law This Week  looks back at the biggest employment, workforce, and management issues in 2016.

Our colleague Laura Monaco discusses the National Labor Relations Board's decision in Miller & Anderson, which expanded the already-relaxed joint-employer standard adopted by the Board in its August 2015 decision in Browning Ferris Industries. 

The show also reviews the Trustees of Columbia University decision on collective bargaining and union organizing.  

Watch the segment below and read Epstein Becker Green's recent Take 5

As we previously reported, the ambush election rules implemented by the National Labor Relations Board (“Board”) last year tilted the scales of union elections in labor’s favor by expediting the election process and eliminating many of the steps employers have relied upon to protect their rights and those of employees who may not want a union. We warned that in addition to rapidly expediting election timeframe, the regulations were full of technical and burdensome procedural mandates on employers.  The Board further emphasized the pro-union impact of these requirements ...

A new Act Now Advisory will be of interest to many of our readers in the retail and food service industries: "Union Organizing at Retail and Food Service Businesses Gets Boost from New York City 'Labor Peace' Executive Order," by our colleagues Allen B. Roberts, Steven M. Swirsky, Donald S. Krueger, and Kristopher D. Reichardt from Epstein Becker Green.

Following is an excerpt:

New York City retail and food service unions got a boost recently when Mayor Bill de Blasio signed an Executive Order titled “Labor Peace for Retail Establishments at City Development Projects.” Subject to ...

The National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or “Board”) has reversed the findings of an Administrative Law Judge (“ALJ”) who found that an employee who was told he was fired and then almost instantly told by the owner of the company he worked for that he was not fired and continued to work without any loss of compensation or working time had in fact been unlawfully discharged in violation of the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA” or the “Act”). It would seem that if “discharge is the ‘capital punishment’ of employment,” this case presents a rare example, in ...

One of the featured stories in Employment Law This Week is the DOL's publication of its controversial final rule around labor relations consultants.

The so-called “Persuader Rule” requires employers to disclose when they hire a consultant to help fight attempts at unionization. But the rule, as written, is potentially much broader and could require employers to disclose information about a wide range of consultants and others who they rely on for training and communication.

View the episode below or read more about the new rule in an earlier blog post.

The US Department of Labor has finally issued its long awaited Final Rule radically reinterpreting the “Advice Exemption” to the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 (“LMRDA.”).  The Final Rule eviscerates any meaningful use of the Advice Exemption, which would be swallowed up by the new expansive definition of persuader activity which could include discussion regarding strategy, reviews of employer drafts and myriad other ways labor attorneys currently aid their clients including essentially any meaningful advice or counsel provided by labor ...

The top story on Employment Law This Week – Epstein Becker Green’s new video program – explores the push towards unionization of West Coast on-demand drivers.

Drivers for personal transportation company WeDriveU, who drive Facebook employees to and from work, have voted to unionize with the Teamsters. This brings the total to more than 450 shuttle drivers in Silicon Valley who have joined the union in the past twelve months. And last week, Seattle became the first city to give on-demand drivers the right to unionize over pay and working conditions. Hundreds of drivers in the ...

As we have been reporting, the Writers Guild of America East has been actively pursuing writers in the new media arena.   On Friday August 7^th, the Guild announced that Vice had agreed to recognize the Guild as the bargaining representative of its editorial staff without an election. It is reported that there are approximately 80 employees in the unit.

While VICE’s management’ statement this past Friday concerning the Guild’s campaign and demand for recognition left some room for doubt as to whether VICE would recognize the union without an election,  they announced today that ...

Last month, in two separate cases, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or the “Board”) and an NLRB Administrative Law Judge (“ALJ”) found against employers in cases involving the right of employees to wear union insignia at work. While the Board has long held that wearing union t-shirts, stickers and the like is a form of concerted protected activity protected by Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (“Act” or “NLRA”), it has historically recognized the right of employers to limit this when necessary to maintain an appropriate atmosphere, these ...

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB or Board) invited interested parties to submit amicus briefs in Miller & Anderson, Inc. in connection with the Board’s reexamination of critical issues affecting the ability of unions to organize employees employed by temporary and staffing agencies (“temporary employees”) in the same bargaining units as employees of an employer that supplements its direct workforce with temporary employees.

Elections Involving Joint-Employers

Under the existing law, the Board will only conduct an election and certify a unit that includes ...

In the footsteps of last month’s union election at Gawker, an electronic news site, it has now been reported that all 26 of the writers and editors of San Francisco-based at Salon, another on line news organization, have served the publication with a letter announcing that each of them has designated the News Guild, which until April of this year was known as the Newspaper Guild,  as their collective bargaining representative.

Lowell Peterson the union’s Executive Director commented that the unionization campaigns at Salon and Gawker and a part of the Guild’s broader efforts ...

Last week we reported on the June 3rd vote by Gawker media’s employees for union representation and speculated what it meant in the broader context of union organizing among Millennials.

Today, Rachel L. Swarns of the New York Times provided some insight based on interviews and reporting with Gawker workers.

The article notes a recent study by the Pew Research Center finding that those in the 18-29 age group view unions more favorably than those in other age groups, with almost twice as many having a favorable view of unions than those who don’t.

Swarns also points out the issues ...

On June 3, 2015 editorial employees at Gawker Media (“Gawker”) voted to be represented by the Writers Guild of America, East ("the Union”).  In this closely watched organizing drive, employees of a leading “new media” outlet, chose an old line print journalism union to bargain with their employer, becoming one of the first (if not the first) digital media outlets to unionize.  This follows on the heels of increased union organizing and pressure in the technology field and organized labor’s Silicon Valley Rising campaign. Interestingly, the election was not conducted by ...

A couple weeks ago we provided anecdotal reports from several NLRB Regional Directors that after one month the new Ambush Election Rules union elections were being held in considerably less time, with the Regional Directors claiming elections were being scheduled between 25-30 days.  Last week, according to BNA’s Daily Labor Report and Law360, the NLRB released national results of the first month showing that the impact was worse than anticipated.

More Union Petitions Under Ambush Elections Rule

Between April 14 (the day the rules when into effect) and May 14, 280 ...

The National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) unfair labor practice hearing  against McDonald’s, USA, LLC (“McDonald’s) and numerous franchisees opened in New York City on Monday March 30, 2015, before Administrative Law Judge (“ALJ”) Lauren Esposito. (“ALJ”), a former NLRB field attorney and union lawyer. Also this week, the Service Employees International Union (“SEIU”) announced that it was investing an additional Fifteen Million Dollars in the Fight For Fifteen campaign, which seeks to organize fast food workers nationwide and that a series of ...

My colleague Barry A. Guryan published a Health Employment And Labor (HEAL) blog post that will be of interest to many of our readers: “NLRB Extends “Specialty Healthcare” to Acute Care Hospitals: Carves Unit into Multiple Smaller Pieces.”

Following is an excerpt:

Ever since 1974, when the NLRB (“Board”) first took jurisdiction over health care institutions, the Board has paid particular attention to the impact of union organizing on the delivery of healthcare in this industry in general  and of acute care hospitals in particular.  When the Act was first amended in ...

Last week we reported on the fact that Teamsters Local 853 and Loop Transportation had completed negotiations for a first collective bargaining agreement covering a unit of shuttle bus drivers who provide transport for employees of Facebook.  We pointed out that employers in technology, media and telecommunications were facing union organizing targeting employees of their vendors and suppliers for transportation, maintenance, food service and the like, that threatened to enmesh such employers as a consequence of unions gaining recognition of their vendors’ and ...

Employers in the Technology Media and Telecommunications (“TMT”) industries have generally not thought that union organizing was an issue that affected their businesses and workforces.  Recent developments suggest that this is no longer the case.

These industries have earned reputations for innovative workplaces, generous benefits, and free food. At the same time, technology companies have outsourced many non-core functions such as campus security, maintenance, and transportation to third party suppliers.  Employees of these vendors  generally receive less ...

New Union Rules and Rulings: Proactive Strategies for Employers Facing Today’s Aggressive National Labor Relations Board and New Expedited Representation Elections

April 14, 2015 – Hilton Westchester, Rye Brook, New York

May 7, 2015 – The L.A. Hotel Downtown, Los Angeles, California

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has adopted dramatic new rules and processes for union representation elections scheduled to take effect on April 14, 2015. The NLRB has also changed many of its standards concerning workplace rules, handbooks and policies affecting ALL EMPLOYERS ...

On January 5, 2015, less than one month after the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) voted to adopt a Final Rule to amend its rules and procedures for representation elections, a lawsuit has been filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, asserting that the Board exceeded its authority under the National Labor Relations Act (Act) when it amended its rules for votes on union representation and that the new rule in unconstitutional and violates the First and Fifth Amendments of the US Constitution.

The suit was filed by the Chamber of Commerce of the United ...

In our new Act Now Advisory, “NLRB Adopts Expedited Election Rules, Effective April 15, 2015,” we report on the National Labor Relations Board’s new rules for representation elections. These rules will substantially shorten the time between the point when a union files a petition for a vote and the timing of the vote, severely limit the right of employers to litigate important issues before an election is held, and are expected to result in more union wins in representation votes. We include steps that employers may want to consider taking in advance of April 2015, in order to ...

NLRB General Counsel Richard Griffin announced on Tuesday July 29^th   that he has authorized issuance of Unfair Labor Practice Complaints based on 43 of 181 charges pending against McDonald’s, USA, LLC and various of its franchisees, in which the Board will allege that the company and its franchisees are joint-employers. If the General Counsel prevails on his theory that McDonalds is a joint employer with its franchisees, the result would be not only a finding of shared responsibility for unfair labor practices, but could also mean that the franchisor would share in the ...

The NLRB finds that the women’s shoe sales employees at Bergdorf Goodman’s New York Store are not an appropriate unit for bargaining. The Board’s unanimous decision to reverse the Regional Director’s finding that the shoe sales team did constitute an appropriate unit and could have their own vote on union representation comes one week after its decision finding that a unit limited to the cosmetics and fragrance sales employees at a Macy’s in Saugus were an appropriate unit for bargaining. The Regional Directors who issued the Decisions and Directions of Election in ...

The New York Times reported today in its business section in article by Steven Greenhouse, who covers labor matters for the paper, about a convention taking place in Addison. The convention is underwritten by the Service Employees International Union or SEIU, which has been not very quietly backing the “Stand for Fifteen,” movement in its quest for wages of $15 per hour in the fast food field.  It is probably not a coincidence that Addison is just four miles from McDonald’s headquarters in Oak Brook, Il.

While most of last week’s focus in labor relations law was on the NLRB’s ...

By Steven M. Swirsky and Peter M. Panken

NLRB General Counsel Richard Griffin has declared in an April 30, 2014 General Counsel Memorandum. that his office will continue and expand the increasingly aggressive pursuit of injunctions in Federal Court against employers in connection with union organizing and bargaining for initial collective bargaining agreements.

In GC Memorandum GC 14-30, the Board’s regional offices have been directed that they should aggressively consider requesting authorization from the General Counsel and the Board to pursue Section 10(j) injunctions ...

By Steven M. Swirsky and Adam C. Abrahms

The Regional Director for the NLRB’s Chicago Region has found that football players at Northwestern University who receive scholarships are “employees” for purposes of the National Labor Relations Act.  Some of the football players blindsided the University, NCAA and college athletics by filing a petition to be represented by the College Athlete Players Association (CAPA), a putative union funded and supported by the United Steelworkers union. As only "employees" are covered by the National Labor Relations Act, finding them to be ...

By Steven M. Swirsky, Adam C. Abrahms, Kara M. Maciel, and Casey M. Cosentino

As previously predicted by the Management Memo on August 1, 2013 and October 30, 2013, the National Labor Relations Board (the “Board”) issued a second Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRM”) to amend its existing rules and regulations governing union elections procedures. If they look familiar when you see them, there is a good reason for that: you have seen them before.

As readers of the Management Memo are well aware, the NPRM is the latest development in the long saga of organized labor’s attempts ...

On August 1st President Obama made a bold statement by appointing Richard Griffin to serve as the NLRB's General Counsel only three days after the former union lawyer vacated his unconstitutional recess appointment as a NLRB Board Member. The President statement by appointment made at least two things clear -

1. The President wants an aggressive pro-labor General Counsel and NLRB, and
2. The President values advancing the labor agenda over cooperation with the US Senate.

As we discussed here on July 30th the Senate confirmed a full Board for the first time in a decade as a result of a "deal" in ...

By: Adam C. Abrahms and Stephanie R. Carrington

Since California’s implementation of legislation setting minimum nurse-to-patient staffing ratios in 2004, the issue of nurse staffing has been slowly but surely creeping its way into other states’ legislation, attempts at federal legislation, and of course, into more union contracts.

When it comes to requirements for hospital staffing ratios, federal regulations provide only that hospitals participating in Medicare have “adequate numbers” of nurses and other personnel to provide nursing care.  But some states have ...

By: Steven R. Blackburn

Wal-Mart Stores has filed an interesting and unusual lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court seeking injunctive relief to stop various activities conducted by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union and its subsidiary “OUR Wal-Mart” (Organization United for Respect at Wal-Mart) in connection with their long-running efforts to organize the giant retailer’s employees.  The complaint alleges that on numerous occasions in 2012 and 2013 demonstrators acting on behalf of the UFCW entered various Wal-Mart stores in California and disrupted store ...

In the past week media reports abound regarding a controversial allegedly "anti-union" statement made by a high level executive associated with the iconic snack cake Twinkies.  As widely reported late last year, the original Twinkie maker, Hostess Brands, Inc.,  was forced to close, liquidate and lay off its entire unionized workforce, publicly blaming the recalcitrance of its unions for the company's downfall.  However, these statements did not cause this most recent controversy.  Rather, it was comments from an executive connected with Hostess Brands LLC, the newly formed ...

By: Paul H. Burmeister

Illinois charter schools may be subject to a union organizing drive under federal law pursuant to a recent ruling by the National Labor Relations Board. On December 14, 2012 The National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) found that a private, nonprofit corporation that operates a public charter school in Chicago was an employer under Section 2(2) of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). Chicago Mathematics & Science Academy Charter School, Inc. and Chicago Alliance of Charter Teachers and Staff, IFT-AFT (359 NLRB 41.  This ruling emanated from the ...

By: Allen B. Roberts

I wrote the February 2013 version of Take 5 Views You Can Use, a newsletter published by the Labor and Employment practice of Epstein Becker Green. In it, I discuss an alternative view of five topics that are likely to impact employers in 2013 and beyond. One topic involved the potential for labor organizing by pop-up unions in break-out units.

Despite some perceptions of cohesiveness and political acumen, influence and wherewithal following the 2012 election cycle, labor unions represent only about 7.3 percent of the private sector workforce in the United ...

In a year marked by backlash against organized labor in traditional union strong holds such as Wisconsin, Ohio and Michigan, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported that union membership reached historic lows in 2012 as the result of that backlash along with other factors dwindled union ranks.

Organized labor lost 398,000 members in 2012 as the percentage of private sector union membership fell to an all time low of 6.6%. When both public and private sector employees are included the rate of union membership is almost doubled to 11.3% though that rate still represents a significant ...

Epstein Becker Green is pleased to announce a webinar series for health care employers focusing on new and more aggressive tactics and strategies being employed by health care industry unions.

This three-part webinar series will provide an in-depth analysis and offer tools to assist employers who currently have union represented workforces as well as those who are or may be facing organizing efforts.

Part I - January 29, 2013        Aggressive Union Organizing Strategies:  When Organizing Trumps Patient Care

Part II - February 28, 2013    Aggressive Union Negotiating Tactics

Part III - March ...

On January 3, 2013, the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United (CNA/NNU) and the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW), two of the healthcare industry's most aggressive unions, announced a new alliance designed to organize employees in non-union hospitals, impose their agenda on already unionized hospitals and target the members of rival union Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

CNA/NNU is the largest union exclusively representing registered nurses (RNs). The CNA has had considerable success in California organizing over 85,000 RNs and ...

I wrote the October 2012 edition of Take 5: Views You Can Use, a newsletter published by the Labor and Employment practice of Epstein Becker Green. 

In it, I outline five actions that non-union employers should take to retain their union-free status in 2013:

1. Assess your company's vulnerability.
2. Ensure that company policies are compliant and pro-company.
3. Analyze and arrange your company's workforce to avoid micro-units.
4. Be prepared to respond at the earliest signs of union organizing.
5. Watch for NLRB developments directed at non-union employers.

The following is an excerpt:

With the ...