The Administrative Task Force plays a critical role in keeping our OSHA practice current and vibrant. We follow developments daily and we work together to analyze the impact that proposed and actual changes will have on the law in general and specifically on our client’s industries. Employers today face an unprecedented range of workplace safety and OSHA legal issues as government increases worker safety and health regulation and demands meticulous reviews by its OSHA inspection force.
On January 5, 2011, the White House announced President Obama’s intent to nominate Lafe E. Solomon to be General Counsel for the National Labor Relations Board and Terence F. Flynn to be a Board Member.
Continue Reading...Hunton & Williams partners Laura Franze and Roland Juarez recently participated in a panel of California employment law experts to discuss various cutting edge issues in labor and employment law, including the impact of social media, new trends in non-compete agreements and trade secret protections, the ripple effect of the Ninth Circuit's ruling in Dukes v. Wal-Mart, and other related topics.
Employers who thought the hotly contested issue of card check recognition had been side-lined along with EFCA should take notice of a recent decision announced by the National Labor Relations Board (the “Board”). As predicted earlier in light of its new composition, the Board has begun to lay the groundwork to overturn established precedent giving employees the right to demand a secret ballot election in the face of voluntary card-based union recognition.
Continue Reading...The NLRB has issued an RFI (Request for Information) to identify firms who can provide the means for employees at businesses across the country to "vote" electronically on whether they want union representation. The idea would be that, sitting in the comfort of their own home . . . or the union hall, employees can use a computer, telephone or some other electronic means to register their choice on election day. This method of voting, so the argument goes, avoids the "intimidation" employees may feel when voting in a voting booth by secret ballot at their place of employment. Not only that, it would save the NLRB money by avoiding the need to send field agents to the companies where elections are scheduled. No ballot, no voting booth, no assurance of privacy, and no protection from someone looking over the employee's shoulder, or worse, as she votes. And electronic voting can be ordered administratively by the agency in the dead of night rather than through legislation undertaken in the light of day.
Continue Reading...The NLRB's General Counsel, Ron Meisburg, recently announced his anticipated resignation, effective June 20, 2010. Meisburg's departure now frees President Obama to appoint Meisburg’s successor. While a number of names as replacement GC have surfaced, no clear front runner has emerged.
Continue Reading...Andrew Stern’s sudden resignation as International President of the Service Employees International Union (“SEIU”) took the labor world by surprise and sparked debate about his legacy and the future of the nation’s largest and most politically powerful labor union. The selection of SEIU Executive Vice-President Mary Kay Henry as his successor has sparked an equally intense debate about the direction she is likely to take SEIU in the future. Many had assumed that Anna Burger, SEIU’s Secretary − Treasurer and Chair of Change to Win − not to mention Stern’s longtime protégé − was all but guaranteed the job. However, Henry’s candidacy grew support among the members of SEIU’s Executive Council when she promised to “heal rifts” within the union caused by internal debate over Stern and the long-term viability of his organizing philosophy. The SEIU Executive Council’s rejection of Burger seemed to signal a desire at the top of SEIU for a genuine change of direction. Yet, in the days following her election, Henry has sent mixed signals about her true intentions.
Continue Reading...In a move sure to draw fire from Republican lawmakers and segments of the business community, President Obama on Saturday issued recess appointments to place controversial candidates on the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”). Presidents have constitutional authority to fill vacancies without the advice and consent of the Senate when Congress is in recess, as it is now.
Continue Reading...On Tuesday, February 4th, the United States Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (“HELP”) Committee called a rare hearing to question Craig Becker, President Barack Obama’s nominee for the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”). While Becker was approved by the HELP Committee last year in a 15-8 vote, Arizona Senator John McCain (R.) placed a hold on his nomination, keeping a Senate vote from taking place. Therefore, the White House resubmitted his nomination and the Committee voted on Becker again yesterday, before a confirmation vote in the full Senate.
Continue Reading...Late last week the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its numbers concerning the levels of union membership in 2009. As in past years, the number of union members in the private sector has declined, now down to 7.2% from 7.6% in 2008. In December 2009, the NLRB's General Counsel released the Agency's numbers regarding the number of initial union representation elections in FY 2009. Once again, the number of elections initiated by unions has declined, this time by a whopping 19% in just one year.
Continue Reading...On December 24, Craig Becker’s nomination to the NLRB ran into a significant obstacle when the Senate returned the nomination to the White House for reconsideration.
Becker, who works for the Service Employees International Union, was nominated by the President earlier this year to fill one of the two vacant Democratic seats on the NLRB. There has been significant controversy surrounding his nomination due to what critics describe as his extreme, some say radical, pro-union views concerning possible changes to the nation’s labor laws. The nominations of Democrat Mark Pierce and Republican Robert Hayes were both held over by the Senate for consideration during the next term, indicating that both are likely to be confirmed.
Continue Reading...Fairly or not, America’s commercial banks have been vilified by many as the cause of the nation’s financial meltdown. The CEOs of America’s most venerable financial institutions have been called to Washington and excoriated by an angry Congress, and on talk shows across the nation their salaries have been contrasted with those of hourly-paid financial workers. The new administration has called for tighter regulation of the financial sector and even appointed a “pay czar” to review the compensation structures of banks that have received bailout funds. While most of the attention over the banking crisis is focused on whether, and to what extent, the industry is in need of reform, far less attention has been placed on the veritable “perfect storm” the current political and economic climate has created for unions eager to make inroads into an industry that has been largely untouched by big labor.
Continue Reading...According to data from BNA PLUS, unions have won more than 73% of the elections in which they participated in the first half of 2009. This is up from 66% for the same time period in 2008. The Teamsters led the way by participating in 164 elections and winning 70% of them, while the SEIU was second, winning 75% of 44 elections. Although the number of elections conducted by the NLRB thus far in 2009 is down from the number in 2008, the union's win rate in each year of this decade has been over 50% and getting better as the decade progresses. The numbers out today indicate that currently unions are overwhelmingly successful when employees are allowed to vote on the question of union representation. Opponents of the Employee Free Choice Act will question why Congress needs to eliminate the secret ballot for employees in order to help unions succeed when unions are obviously faring very well under the current system.
In one of the largest back pay awards in the agency's history, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) concluded a settlement with five Michigan beer distributors that required the companies to pay $41 million in back pay to employees and the Teamsters. Findings from an ALJ, supported by the NLRB and the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, concluded that the five companies colluded to systematically oust the union by separately engaging in bad faith bargaining, unlawfully declaring impasse, and then implementing their respective labor contracts with substantially lower wages and benefits.
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