Unions

Subscribe to Unions via RSS

Earlier today, the United States Supreme Court unanimously found that President Obama acted unconstitutionally when he made several recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) in 2012. The Court, in an Opinion authored by Justice Breyer, affirmed (albeit for differing reasons) the January 2013 judgment by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Continue Reading U.S. Supreme Court Issues Long-Awaited Decision in NLRB v. Noel Canning; President Obama’s Recess Appointments to NLRB Deemed Unconstitutional

As we previously reported, the National Labor Relations Board has thrown down some pretty significant roadblocks for employers attempting to conduct thorough and actionable internal investigations. The Board continued those efforts recently when it declared that an employer’s request that a union-covered employee sign his own witness statement at the conclusion of an interview…

Stop me if you have heard this one, an employee was upset about his pay rate…

Seriously, an employee upset about his pay was at the heart of a recent decision issued by the National Labor Relations Board that explored the protections afforded by the National Labor Relations Act (“Act”). The employee in question was hired to perform waterproofing duties on a project at a university in Ohio. The project was a public project, and therefore, it was covered by the applicable prevailing wage laws. The employee, however, was not happy about the prevailing wage rate that he received on the project, and essentially complained about his wage rate throughout the entire time he spent working on the project. In fact, as the foreman testified, the employee complained about basically everything during his brief tenure with the employer.
Continue Reading NLRB Finds that not all Whining and Complaining Protected by NLRA

As Americans across the country anxiously stare at their National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Men’s Basketball brackets, the Northwestern University Wildcats are dominating the headlines in both the sports and labor law communities. In what many sports and legal commentators are calling a game-changing decision (pun intended), on Wednesday, March 26, the Regional Director for the Chicago Regional Office of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled that certain players on the Northwestern University football team could seek to form a union. Perhaps more importantly, the Decision is quite expansive in its interpretation of the term “employee.”…
Continue Reading NLRB Rules That College Football Team Can Seek to Form a Union

Recently, McNees issued its annual White Paper: The National Labor Relations Board Year in Review.  Please click here to view the full White Paper. 

From the looks of it, 2013 was a very rough year for the National Labor Relations Board! Last year, we reported that the National Labor Relations Board would face some serious legal…

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recently released a Letter of Interpretation authorizing employees at non-union workplaces to designate union organizers to act as their employee representative during an OSHA inspection.
Continue Reading Interpretation Letter Permits Union Organizers to Be Employee Representatives during OSHA Inspections at Non-Union Worksites

On May 7, 2013, a three-member panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit vacated the NLRB’s Notice Posting Rule, originally issued by the Board in August 2011. The Rule required that virtually all private-sector employers post a Notice to Employees, informing employees of various rights under the National Labor Relations Act (Act), such as the rights to engage in union organizing, form or join a union, and strike. The Notice also described various actions by employers or unions that would be illegal under the Act.
Continue Reading NLRB’S Notice Posting Rule Invalidated by DC Court of Appeals

As you may have heard, the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals recently sent shockwaves through the labor relations world by holding that President Obama’s "recess" appointments to the National Labor Relations Board were invalid. The court concluded that, as a result, the Board was acting without a quorum and did not have the…

We previously reported that a National Labor Relations Board Administrative Law Judge issued an interesting decision involving an employee who was discharged for posts he made on his Facebook page. In that case, the ALJ found that the employee was not discharged in violation of the National Labor Relations Act, because even though some of the employee’s Facebook posts were protected, the employee’s termination was based on only non-protected posts. Recently, the Board upheld the ALJ’s decision, providing helpful guidance to employers on the limits of the NLRA’s protections.
Continue Reading Discharge Over Facebook Posting Lawful