The Fifth Circuit recently expanded the existing split among federal appeals courts over whether the NLRB can impose Thryv remedies—enhanced monetary compensation for employees covering all direct and foreseeable economic harms caused by unlawful terminations. This deepening conflict with the Third and Ninth Circuits increases the likelihood of U.S. Supreme Court review. The case arose after eight Texas bar employees were unlawfully fired following a 2022…

Unions are Successfully Organizing the Wrong Companies US unions have adapted to an increasingly hostile organizing climate by focusing on small workplaces in peripheral industries, but this strategy cannot produce meaningful growth. Despite a 79% NLRB election win rate last year and nearly 100,000 workers organized—the highest since 2009—the labor movement would need to organize millions annually to reverse long-term…

My Annual PSA for All Employers Section 7 of the NLRA protects employees’ rights to engage in concerted activities for collective bargaining or for other mutual aid or protection—and these protections apply even in non-union workplaces. Examples of protected concerted activity include: * Discussing wages or working conditions (including online), * Distributing workplace-related materials, * Refusing unsafe work as a group, *…

An Evansville, Indiana electrician submitted a notarized resignation from the IBEW and soon after purchased a non-union electrical company. The union claimed his resignation would not take effect for six months and charged him internally for refusing to sign a Letter of Assent that would have made his new company union-signatory. IBEW Local 16 then found him guilty of violating union rules…

A recent Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling has made it easier for employers to halt ongoing NLRB unfair labor practice (ULP) proceedings—so long as they sue in Texas, Louisiana, or Mississippi, the states within the Fifth Circuit. The court held that SpaceX and two other companies challenging the constitutionality of the NLRB’s structure were entitled to preliminary injunctions stopping their NLRB cases. Because…

Now that the NLRB can resume issuing decisions, employers would like several prior NLRB decisions to be reversed (or at least limited), especially to non-union employees. These are my top 3 cases on that list: * Stericycle, Inc., 372 NRLB No. 113 (2023), which held that facially neutral employment rules or policies (social media, negative…