Technology Muddies Bargaining Relationships Between Unions and Employers

Despite the utility and advantages, technological advances complicate employers’ and labor unions’ collective bargaining relationship. For example, to what extent must employers bargain with unions over the introduction of technology on the jobsite, especially where new technology performs bargaining unit work or monitors bargaining unit workers performance?   Employers generally have the right to make…
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U.S. Soccer Union Claims Ability to Reject Promotional Material Involving Players

The collective bargaining agreement between the U.S. men’s national soccer team and its players’ union is silent on the issue of advertisement approvals. The players union recently asked the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals to affirm an arbitral finding that the union has the power to reject promotional materials sought by U.S. Soccer Federation sponsors.…
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Company Required to Bargain over Break Rule Change

Parsons Electric was part of a multiemployer collective bargaining agreement that was silent on the subject of employee breaks. Independent of the union contract, Parsons, for years, maintained a written policy that provided hourly employees with a 15-minute break in the morning and a 15-minute break in the afternoon each workday. Parsons then replaced the…
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Company’s Lockout of Union Members Lawful When Bargaining Both Mandatory and Permissive Subjects

The United Steel Workers (USW) went on strike at an aluminum oxide plant after its collective bargaining agreement expired. Management responded with a “last, best and final” proposal to end the dispute. The workers rejected this contract proposal prompting the company to begin a lockout of bargaining unit employees the next day. A company can…
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Union Members Entitled to Longevity Bonus Despite Working Without a Contract

Nurses were eligible for two types of wage increments: an across-the-board annual raise and a periodic longevity-based wage increase as individual nurses progressed from one experience level to the next. Both raises were paid in January each year. In January 2014, nine months after the contract expired but while negotiations for a successor agreement were…
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Not Negotiating with the Union About Changes to the Dress Code Violated Labor Law

Put this one in the “Duh” category. The National Labor Relations Board found that the Memorial Hospital of Salem County in Salem, New Jersey violated the National Labor Relations Act when it refused to bargain with the Health Professionals and Allied Employees union over changes in the dress code and did not give the union…
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