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…

The Sheet Metal Workers Local 19 petitioned the NLRB to represent employees employed solely by Miller & Anderson, temporary employees employed solely by Tradesmen International, and temporary employees employed jointly by Miller & Anderson and Tradesmen International. Under Board law in Oakwood Care Center, the unit combining temporary employees and regular employees of a sole…

We have shared our ongoing concern over the NLRB’s new ambush election rules, and recent statistics show that these concerns are warranted. The impact of the new election rules – fondly called the “ambush” election rules – is even worse than anticipated. During the first month the rules were in effect, there was a 17%…

Companies need to be conscious of when employees are permitted to have union representation because the consequences of unlawfully denying union representation can be grave. Employee Andrew Smith was called into an interview with DuPont Company the day after he reported a workplace fall. DuPont had disciplined Smith just one year earlier for dishonesty and…