Employers are pleasantly surprised when I tell them that bargaining for a collective bargaining agreement does not mean that every part of running their business must be negotiated. I then explain what a management rights clause is – a blog entry for a later day – and the difference between mandatory, permissive, and illegal subjects of bargaining.…

Non-Compete agreements between an employer and its bargaining unit employees are a mandatory subject of bargaining. However, employers do not need to bargain with the union representing those employees before signing agreements with third party companies to not hire the employer’s bargaining unit employees.   In Duke Energy Indiana, the union represented the employer’s linemen…

A union representing employees of Rite Aid’s New York and New Jersey stores filed a complaint alleging that the company illegally insisted, as a condition of reaching a contract, that the union agree to remove newly hired interns and pharmacists working in New York stores from the bargaining unit. Rite Aid contended that is proposal…

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…