Fellow Ohio attorney Jon Hyman, author of “Ohio Employer’s Law Blog” recently dove deep into the footnotes of the Whole Foods decision and resurfaced with an excellent, albeit frightening, analysis of the Board’s thought process. Footnotes 7 and 9 may provide a peek into the Board’s future desire to, as Jon says, “stretch the definition…

A few weeks ago, the NLRB ruled that non-union Whole Foods’ workplace policy that prohibits employees from recording conversations or taking pictures with their phones was unlawful. The Board thought this policy stifled open conversation. Ironically, Whole Foods said the policy was, in fact, to encourage open conversation because people may be less frank if…

The National Labor Relations Board ruled that the Longshoreman’s Union (ILWU) violated federal law with slowdowns and work stoppages at the Port of Portland in 2012 and 2013. The Union is now on the hook for millions of dollars of damages as they are being sued by the Port and the Company that runs Terminal…

Minnesota Home Healthcare workers are permitted to unionize. While this ruling does not have much impact for most of our readers, the backstory should resonate with you. Minnesota passed a law that allowed collective bargaining for home care providers for Medicaid recipients. The 2013 law called the Individual Providers of Direct Support Services Representation Act…

By now, if you’re remotely interested in what happening at the NLRB, you are familiar with the McDonald’s joint employer case. If you’ve just crawled out from under a rock, this case will determine whether McDonald’s and its franchisees are joint employers. Currently they are not, which benefits companies, but this Board is not shy…

In the early 2000’s the United Autoworkers (UAW) unions began trying to organize the Nissan plant in Canton, Mississippi. Nearly 15 years later, it’s still trying. According to the UAW, “many” Nissan employees recently began wearing pro-union t-shirts and hats to work. In response the company changed its almost anything goes dress code to one…