National Labor Relations Board leaders faced a rare agency staff protest on November 8, the second such employee action in the current Board’s first year. Career staffers at the NLRB protested and handed out leaflets outside an American Bar Association conference attended by Board Chairman John Ring. They say the agency is trying to make more…

The Department of Labor likely will be issuing new financial reporting rules for unions and their affiliates (like worker centers).  Federal laws, such as the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act, require unions to file certain financial disclosure documents with the Department of Labor detailing how they are spending their members’ dues money (e.g., officer salaries,…

The National Labor Relations Board Office of the General Counsel recently released a new advice memorandum after considering whether an employee at H&M Construction engaged in protected concerted activity by posting comments on Facebook about how the company’s employees were treated by their general contractor. The General Counsel found that the employer violated Section 8(a)(1) of the National Labor Relations Act…

If a company has a union, does the employer have to negotiate with the union before changing or implementing safety policies?  Yes. A company violated labor law when it unilaterally implemented a policy at a manufacturing facility that required workers to wear flame-resistant clothing at all times. Prior to the implementation of that policy, employees did not have…

The Department of Labor announced on October 17, 2018 two new web pages intended to assist both businesses and workers on compliance with the laws enforced by the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, including the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Family Medical Leave Act, and Child Labor Laws. These web pages, developed in response to employer…

Imagine an employer giving a unionized workforce an ultimatum for concessions, then imposing cuts when the local union balked. That is what happened, and the employer is the AFL-CIO. Employees of the AFL-CIO say the labor group is not practicing what it preaches, and they’re prepared to picket over it. About 50 janitors, drivers, secretaries, and accountants at the union’s…