Labor Relations / Unions

NLRB agenda: Overturn Trump-era decisions favoring employers

08/17/2021

Less than a month into her term as the National Labor Relations Board’s general counsel, Jennifer Abruzzo wasted no time putting her stamp on the board’s agenda. Abruzzo moved into her new office on July 22. On Aug. 12, she issued an advisory memo that signals a likely effort to reverse many of the NLRB’s Trump-era decisions.

Infrastructure legislation notable for what’s not in it

08/10/2021

The massive infrastructure bill moving through the U.S. Senate would provide $1.2 trillion to build and repair roads, bridges and tunnels; modernize the nation’s utilities; expand broadband coverage; and address climate change. One thing it won’t do: Advance the Protecting the Right to Organize Act.

PRO Act gets Senate hearing as unions gain political traction

07/27/2021

The Protecting the Right to Organize Act—pro-union legislation that has already passed in the House of Representatives—was the topic of a lengthy July 22 hearing by the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. The hearing won’t lead directly to passage in the Senate, but it could elevate union organizing as a campaign issue in the 2022 mid-term elections.

Supreme Court limits union-organizing access

07/06/2021

The U.S. Supreme Court has handed employers a victory in the struggle to keep labor unions at bay, restricting the amount of time organizers can spend at worksites persuading employees to join a union.

Dems to control NLRB as Biden nominates two union-side lawyers

06/29/2021

David Prouty, currently general counsel of the Service Employee International Union’s largest local, would replace outgoing Republican NLRB member William Emanuel, whose term ends in August.

High Court: Only 3 cases affected employers

06/29/2021

No case in this term rose to the level of last year’s Bostock v. Clayton County, a blockbuster decision that said Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects employees against discrimination because they are gay or transgender. However, these cases matter to employers.

Biden administration pro-union tilt has begun

06/03/2021

The Trump administration took a generally pro-employer stance on labor-relations issues. Months into President Biden’s term, it is clear that is changing.

White House infrastructure plan would bring changes for employers

04/15/2021

The Biden administration’s infrastructure proposal—tentatively titled the American Jobs Plan—was unveiled March 31 and is still in draft form. Taken together, the proposals written into the AJP could affect how employers run their workplaces for decades to come. Here are some of the expected highlights.

Even after Amazon, AI could trigger more union organizing

04/13/2021

When Amazon warehouse employees in Alabama voted April 9 not to join the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, many considered it a blow to organized labor. Other observers are not so sure.

Rein in inappropriate tweets, even the boss’s

04/08/2021

When senior executives discuss company business, they are speaking for the company. That speech includes Twitter content, according to the National Labor Relations Board, which has been coming down hard on CEOs who tweet during union organizing drives.