Management Memo

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 ...

by: Adam C. Abrahms, Kara M. Maciel, Evan J. Spelfogel and Steven M. Swirsky

In a time when employers do not receive much good news out of Washington D.C., the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit may have given some very welcome relief to employers facing issues before the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or “the Board”) in light of recent precedent reversing NLRB decisions.  Quoting from early Constitutional authority including The Federalist Papers and Marbury v. Madison, the D.C. Circuit ruled today that President Obama’s “Recess Appointments” of ...

I co-authored an Act Now Advisory on the decision issued by NLRB Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) Joel Biblowitz on January 8, 2013, finding that Quicken Loans’ agreements concerning proprietary and confidential information and non-disparagement unlawfully interfered with these unrepresented employees’ Section 7 rights to engage in concerted and protected activity.  The ALJ decision adopts the expansive views of Acting General Counsel Lafe Solomon and further expands the Board’s involvement in non-union workplaces.

Click here to read the full advisory on ...

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 ...

Please join Epstein Becker Green’s Health Care & Life Sciences and Labor & Employment practitioners as we continue to review the Affordable Care Act and its ongoing impact on employers and their group health plans.

In less than a year, employers employing at least 50 full-time employees will be subject to the Employer Shared Responsibility provisions. Under these provisions, if employers do not offer health coverage or do not offer affordable health coverage that provides a minimum level of value to their full-time employees, they may be subject to a tax penalty under the proposed ...

On Tuesday, December 18, Epstein Becker Green attorneys Gretchen Harders, Frank C. Morris, Jr., and Adam C. Solander offered a one-hour webinar titled “What Employers Need to Know Now!” as the second webinar in a series on the New ACA Implementation Regulations: Employer Impact.

The webinar included:

• ACA implementation timeline
• Structure of the law and basic concepts affecting employers
• Critical employer decision making and planning for 2014
• Alternative plan design options available to employers

The webinar recording and presentation slides for “What Employers Need to ...

Frank C. Morris, Jr., Member of the Firm in the Litigation, Labor and Employment, and Employee Benefits practices is speaking at the 36th Annual National Labor & Management Conference on the topic of the Affordable Care Act and associated compliance issues facing employers and health and welfare funds.

The National Labor and Management Conference is recognized as one of the most outstanding labor and management programs in the United States, promoting discussion and collaboration on many levels. The program annually unites a diversity of labor and management leaders from across ...

Please join Epstein Becker Green’s Health Care & Life Sciences, Employee Benefits, and Labor & Employment practitioners as we continue to review the Affordable Care Act and its ongoing impact on employers and their group health plans and programs.

Since the Presidential election, The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is moving quickly to implement the Affordable Care Act. Rules have been released in the past few weeks concerning participation in federal exchanges, discrimination based on pre-existing conditions, essential health benefit requirements, and ...