Posts tagged Labor relations
National Labor Relations Board sues to block New York labor law
September 22, 2025 // The suit claims that S8034A/A8590A creates a regulatory system in conflict with the National Labor Relations Act, alleging that it usurps the NLRB’s authority to regulate the private sector. It wants the court to declare the law invalid because it’s preempted by the NLRA under the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The complaint also asks the court for an injunction to stop the state from enforcing the law. S8034A/A8590A, signed into law by Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) at the New York City Labor Day Parade, amends the State Labor Relations Act to allow the PERB to enforce collective bargaining agreements and certify bargaining representatives. It took effect immediately upon being signed.
Oregon Won’t Enforce LPA Requirement After Law Declared Illegal – Similar Laws in Other States Are Also Ripe for Challenge
June 10, 2025 // While several other states (such as Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island) have LPA requirements, this ruling applies only to the Oregon law. Similar laws in other states are also ripe for challenge, and challenges are underway in some other states. Some industry players, however, have shied away from contesting the laws because of a desire not to upset the regulators upon whose good will they need to operate.
Opinion: Remote work is a new battlefield for unions
April 22, 2025 // A series of Trump administration executive orders, and recent guidance from the Office of Personnel Management , aim to dismantle federal telework arrangements. That guidance indicates that agencies can override union contracts when it comes to deciding how much or how little employees get to work from home. Legal experts warn that reversing negotiated telework clauses not only puts federal employees’ work-life balance at risk but also sets a precedent that could weaken collective bargaining in other areas.
Philly-Area Dometic Employees Slam UAW Union with Federal Charges for Illegal Threats Linked to Strike
March 12, 2024 // Seven employees of auto accessory manufacturer Dometic’s Philadelphia-area factory have filed federal charges against the United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 644 union, maintaining that union officials ignored their requests to resign union membership during a strike, and are now unlawfully imposing internal union discipline on them. The workers, Nancy Powelson, Eric Angell, Joseph Buchak, Mario Coccie, Md Rasidul Islam, James Nold, and Robert Haldeman, filed their charges at National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Region 4 with free legal aid from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation. “The Union’s act of summoning Charging Party to attend an internal Union trial for post-resignation conduct interferes, restrains and coerces Charging Party in the exercise of…[NLRA] Section 7 rights, in violation of Teamsters Local 492 (United Parcel Service)…and Section 8(b)(1),” the employees’ charges explain.
Opinion: Major US corporations threaten to return labor to ‘law of the jungle’
March 11, 2024 // Roger King, a longtime management-side lawyer who is senior labor counsel for the HR Policy Association, said “it will be a lose-lose” if the federal courts overturn the 89-year-old National Labor Relations Act, which has governed labor relations since Franklin Roosevelt was president. “We’ll have the law of the jungle, the law of the streets,” King said. “It will be who has the most power. It’s potential for chaos.”
Report: Illinois has 5th highest amount of post-employment benefit liabilities
February 7, 2024 // Nationwide, current unfunded state OPEB liabilities are more than $1.14 trillion, or roughly $3,500 for every American man, woman and child. Only four states have a higher amount than Illinois, including Texas, New York, California and New Jersey. Two states, Nebraska and South Dakota, have zero liabilities after implementing defined contribution health care benefits. “OPEB liabilities in many cases are much different than pension liabilities because they are not protected by state constitutions or by contract law,” said Williams. OPEB plans have worse overall funding ratios than state pension plans. With an average funding ratio of merely 13.46%, many have no pre-funded assets whatsoever, allowing liabilities to grow rapidly year over year.
WILL sues to preserve Act 10
January 30, 2024 // “There is no question that 2011 Wisconsin Act 10 significantly changed labor relations in Wisconsin. But since Act 10’s enactment over a decade ago, state and federal courts have repeatedly rebuffed constitutional challenges to the law by those who oppose it,” WILL wrote in its memo to the court. “Both the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin and Seventh Circuit in [the Walker case] had little trouble concluding that Wisconsin was free to distinguish between public safety and general employees, with the latter labeling this conclusion as ‘uncontroversial.’”
Opinion: Employees deserve to hear both sides
November 21, 2023 // Their conditions often also include the employer yielding to a card check election. Under this method of union organizing, workers don’t vote via a secret ballot in an NLRB-supervised election. Instead, they make public their position on whether a workplace should be organized through an open petition process that is all but run by the union itself. This leaves employees — who are already hearing only one side of the story — vulnerable to threats and additional pressure tactics. The most significant concern, however, is that neutrality agreements deprive employees of their right to all information during a union election. This means that crucial information, such as past union corruption scandals, remains hidden from employees. The result is an imbalanced, one-sided view of unionization that undermines the core principles of democracy.
New federal rule could allow millions of workers to more easily unionize at big companies
November 16, 2023 // The rule only applies to labor relations. The Department of Labor sets its own joint employment standards for issues like meeting minimum wage requirements. Still, the new rule could have a major impact. Local franchise owners employ more than 8 million people in the U.S., according to the International Franchise Association. Millions more work for subcontractors or temporary agencies.
Do we all work for the federal government?
November 6, 2023 // Under the NLRB’s reasoning, the federal government is a joint employer of all workers covered by these laws. It even says that joint employers include those who exercise “reserved control” — i.e., they don’t set standards, but they have the power to do so. That expands the definition of joint employer even more. Congress has the power to draft legislation affecting essentially any part of the economy. As such, it reserves the right to set standards for all workers, making the federal government a joint employer of anyone and everyone. It’s highly unlikely that unions or the NLRB will try to apply the new rule in this way, since it’s clearly beyond the pale. (Imagine Department of Labor officials bargaining with union officials over the future of workers at your mechanic, along with almost every other business you’ve ever patronized.) Yet if it’s wrong to say that Washington, D.C., is a joint employer over the economy’s workers, it’s equally wrong to make that claim about larger companies and the workers at their independent franchisees. It defies logic — and will injure millions of small businesses and their workers.