Management Memo

By Kara M. Maciel

Today, EBG client, National Grocers Association (“NGA”), filed a request to speak at the National Labor Relations Board’s public meeting, scheduled for April 10-11, 2014 regarding the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRM”) on the “ambush election” representation procedures.

NGA is the national trade association representing retail and wholesale grocers that comprise the independent sector of the food distribution industry.  NGA requested to speak on 4 key issues being contemplated by the NLRB:

1. Timing of the Election.  NGA opposes any ...

As we noted in "First Kill All The Lawyers", last November the DOL announced its intention to move forward this month with the Administration's Proposed Rule change which would eviscerate the Advice Exemption to the Persuader Rule .  Yesterday, the DOL again delayed its timeline for finalizing the Rule.

In November the DOL's announcement asserted that it intended to publish a Final Rule in March.  On March 6, according to Bloomberg BNA, a DOL spokesman asserted that the Proposed Rule would NOT be made final this month.  The DOL did not give a new target date for finalizing the Rule ...

By Maxine Neuhauser

As we have discussed on a number of prior occasions (Fifth Circuit Rejects The NLRB’s D.R. Horton Decision On Arbitration Waivers; Obama’s Labor Agenda Continues to Advance – Griffin Confirmed as NLRB GC; NLRB Administrative Law Judge Finds Medical Center’s Technology Usage Policies Violated Employees Rights Under the National Labor Relations Act. and Labor Law vs. Common Sense – NLRB Continues Targeting Non-Union Employers and Common Sense) the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” ) and its Administrative Law Judges continue to find that ...

Our colleague Mark M. Trapp recently wrote an article entitled "Going Through Withdrawal: A Step-By-Step Guide to Arbitration in Multiemployer Withdrawal Liability Disputes" which appears in the current issue of the ABA Journal of Labor & Employment Law (members only).   

Following is an excerpt:

Many employers with a unionized workforce contribute to multiemployer pension funds established by collective bargaining agreements. In recent years, due to a variety of factors, most multiemployer funds have faced significant underfunding. As employers have exited these funds ...

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 ...

By Lisa M. Watanabe

On December 3, 2013, the Fifth Circuit issued its much anticipated decision overturning the National Labor Relations Board’s (“NLRB”) controversial D.R. Horton, Inc. decision invalidating class action waivers and holding that requiring employees to sign such waivers violated employees’ rights under the National Labor Relations Act (the “Act”).  As previously reported in our earlier Act Now Advisory, the NLRB’s January 3, 2012 decision held that home builder D.R. Horton, Inc. (“D.R. Horton”) unlawfully interfered with  employees’ ...

While most Americans were preparing for their Thanksgiving Feast, President Obama showed his thanks last week to Big Labor and its hundreds of millions in campaign contributions by ignominiously allowing his recently confirmed Labor Secretary to move forward his DOL's long pending radical proposal to dramatically change the decades old "Persuader Regulations".  The Proposed Rule is designed to give unions both an organizing and bargaining advantage by significantly restricting the right and ability of employers to obtain legal counsel and lawfully communicate with employees ...

Yesterday, in his first public address since being confirmed by the Senate, NLRB Board Member Kent Y. Hirozawa shared with the attendees of EBG's 32nd Annual Client Labor and Employment Briefing his views on the current Board and what to expect from it.

His address, coming the day before Halloween, had all the "BEWARE" foreshadowing of a  good ghost story; unfortunately for employers, the potential horrors may not be tricks or treats.

Board Poised For an Active and Productive 2014

As we noted here, when Hirozawa was confirmed as part of a package deal in July the Board had its first full ...

Earlier this week the Senate confirmed Richard Griffin as NLRB General Counsel.  As we have noted previously in greater detail, Griffin’s appointment was controversial, having been unconstitutionally appointed as a Board Member and, to the ire of Republicans, seemingly thumbed his nose and multiple Courts of Appeals which ruled he and the other recess appointments did not have the authority to act.

In an anti-climactic end to several years of NLRB appointment Senate wrangling, Griffin was confirmed Tuesday in a party line vote.  He now becomes the first confirmed ...

The NLRB has issued an announcement, explaining  how it will recalculate deadlines for filings and submissions in light of the federal government’s 16 day shutdown earlier this month. As we reported at the time of the shutdown the NLRB sua sponte granted parties a one day extension for each day that the Board was closed.

In its announcement dated October 17, 2013, the Board explained that the extensions will apply for all pending matters and not just those due dates that fell during the shutdown period.  There is a one day extension for “each day on which the Agency’s offices are ...