Yesterday, I warned that the NLRB’s ruling to allow employees to use company-provided email systems for union organizing was perhaps the first of a flurry of pro-union rulings to be released between now and the end of the year. Today the NLRB “modernized” its union election procedures. The Board’s “modern” representation procedures are heavily slanted to…

The National Labor Relations Board, by a 3-2 vote, just reversed legal precedent to declare that workers have a right to use their employers’ email systems for non-business purposes, including union organizing. The Board specifically stated, “We decide today that employee use of email for statutorily protected communications on nonworking time must presumptively be permitted…

Teamsters on the West Coast are trying to organize Uber drivers and other drivers of similar companies. Currently, those drivers are generally considered independent contractors who pay a fee for the ability to drive for Uber or its competitors. Since unions can only organize employees, and thus only employees can be in bargaining units, the…

Relying on the controversial D.R. Horton case, the NLRB ruled that gas station chain Murphy Oil’s arbitration agreements barring employees from pursuing class actions were unlawful. Three pro-Union Board Members ruled that the gas station violated the law by requiring employees to resolve employment claims in individual arbitration and seeking to enforce its agreements in…

Republicans, who already had a majority vote in the House of Representatives, now have a majority vote in the United States Senate – although not the 60 votes required to override a President Obama veto. The Republican controlled Senate, led by Sen. Mitch McConnell, has endorsed the “NLRB Reform Act,” a bill introduced by Sen.…

Two employees who conspired together to commit insubordination at work were properly terminated because their actions, while relating to terms and conditions of employment, were so egregious that they lost the protection of Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act. Specifically, two camp-counselor type employees planned at length how they would replace the “happy-friendly-middle…