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 ...
The NLRB has advised its employees in a message posted on the Employee Information section of its website that the Agency has initiated a process to resume full operations. As such, all employees should make every effort to return to work on Thursday, October 17, 2013. This reflects the fact that, as the Board has informed its employees who may not have been following developments in Washington too closely, that “late last night President Obama signed legislation to extend the nation's debt limit and end the partial shutdown of the federal government.”
As we ...
by: Steven M. Swirsky, Adam C. Abrahms, and D. Martin Stanberry
On Monday October 1, 2013, the Board published a Notice in the Federal Register to the NLRB’s website that supplements the effects of the Contingency Plan that we examined at outset of the government shutdown and NLRB furlough. Significantly, the Notice answers some of the important practical questions confronting employers, unions and employees with business before the Board.
With respect to time limits for filings with the agency, according to the Notice, the Board has unilaterally granted an extension of the ...
By: Steven M. Swirsky, Adam C. Abrahms, and D. Martin Stanberry
The shutdown of the federal government that took effect at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday October 1st has shut down all non-essential operations of the US government, including those of the National Labor Relations Board (Board or NLRB).
The Board’s Contingency Plan for Shutdown in the Absence of Appropriations (“Contingency Plan”) is now in effect, effective today. It details how the shutdown will impact the NLRB’s operations and what the shutdown means for employers, employees and unions with unfair labor practice ...
Blog Editors
Recent Updates
- Western District of Texas Says NLRB Structure Unconstitutional, Issues Injunction Preventing SpaceX Unfair Labor Practice Hearing from Proceeding
- Chevron Is Overturned, but Stakeholders Need Not Worry
- Video: SCOTUS Limits Availability of Injunctions in NLRB Unfair Labor Practice Cases - Employment Law This Week
- Supreme Court Rules NLRB 10(j) Injunctions Must Meet Higher Preliminary Injunction Standard in Blow to NLRB
- OSHA’s New Walkaround Rule Potentially Grants Union Representatives Access to Safety Investigations