A hotel suspended a union employee pending investigation of an alleged theft from a hotel guest. In response to the suspension, employees gathered in a staff cafeteria demanding to discuss the employee’s suspension. The housekeeping director began suspending the employees about an hour after they had gathered. He suspended 77 workers for five days and…

We have warned you several times (here, here and here) that the National Labor Relations Board was going to change the definition of joint employer to the detriment of Companies. Yesterday our fear came true. In fact, two Board members said this was “the most sweeping of recent major decisions.” Staffing and user companies, franchisors,…

The Century Foundation (Foundation), a nonprofit research organization, recently released a report explaining the benefits of designing a virtual platform for union organizing. This proposal comes on the heels of the NLRB’s decision to allow the use of company email during non-work time for communications that are protected by the National Labor Relations Act. [See,…

What comes to mind when you think about unions? Typically, people think of heavy industry, baby boomers, and seniority privileges. This picture of unions could be changing given the recent decision of Gawker Media to unionize. Gawker Media is a digital media outlet comprised mostly of college-educated, tech-savvy employees in their 20s and 30s. Recently…

When employers commit unfair labor practices that disrupt pre-election conditions to the point where the National Labor Relations Board determines a fair election cannot be held, the parties can be ordered to bypass the election and immediately begin negotiating a first collective bargaining agreement. There are no automatic rules in determining when this bargaining order,…

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recently declared its intent to increase its enforcement efforts in the healthcare industry at in-patient care facilities such as nursing homes, hospitals, and residential care centers. OSHA decided to indefinitely continue its emphasis program on nursing and residential facilities and to allocate more resources to the healthcare…