Posts tagged National Labor Relations Act
TV production company fights NLRB’s power to order damages without a jury
November 6, 2026 // In 2023, X Factor S2, LLC, a television production company based in Escondido, California, filmed the second season of X Factor (Beyond Belief). A few days into filming, the company replaced four members of its production crew. A union filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), alleging the workers were fired for participating in unionization efforts. X Factor denied discharging anyone or discouraging union activity.
House Republicans ramp up labor union investigations before midterms
September 3, 2026 // Inquiries come after conservative thinktanks claim unions are using member dues to support Democratic causes
Op-ed: Labor Board Must Fix Blocking Charges to Protect Employee Choice
June 17, 2026 // When employees sought representation, the NLRB emphasized speed to capture employee sentiment before it dissipated. But when employees sought to remove or test support for an incumbent union, blocking charges made by the union could postpone a vote for years while allegations, valid or not, are investigated, tried, appealed, or supplemented by new charges. That asymmetry is difficult to square with the act’s protection of a two-way street. Changes in neither 2020 nor 2024 produced a system that reliably safeguards employee free choice. The current NLRB can fix this long-standing problem by closing loopholes, ensuring employees can vote promptly, and taking responsibility for decisions that prevent ballots from being counted.
Federal appeals court dismisses challenge to Minnesota ban on captive audience meetings
October 2, 2025 // The law largely leaves enforcement to employees, who have the power to sue their bosses if they are forced to attend captive audience meetings. Blissenbach and Ellison said they never threatened to enforce the ban and had no “present intention” to. Gov. Tim Walz was later added as a defendant after he told a packed ballroom at the North America’s Building Trades Unions conference that, “Those captive, anti-union meetings … You go to jail now if you do that in Minnesota because you can’t intimidate people.”
Trucking industry reacts to Trump administration move to protect independent contractors
September 5, 2025 // According to the ATA, for more than 90 years, independent contractors have played a vital role in trucking, providing flexibility for drivers and capacity for the supply chain. More than 350,000 professional truck drivers choose to run their own businesses, set their own hours, and chart their own routes.
California Tries Another Tack to Crush Ridesharing
August 4, 2025 // The latest legislative effort is Assembly Bill 1340, which passed the full Assembly in June and was approved by the Senate Transportation Committee in early July. It would allow drivers to unionize and “promote collective bargaining rights for transportation network drivers and state intent that the state action antitrust exemption apply to … drivers and their representatives.” Democrats couldn’t kill the industry quickly, so they’ll try to destroy it slowly via collective bargaining.
New York State Looks to Take Over Labor Law Enforcement Amidst Uncertainty at the NLRB
June 26, 2025 // With mounting uncertainty about the lack of a quorum and near term future of the National Labor Relations Board (the “NLRB” or the “Board”), New York State legislators are attempting to usurp the powers delegated to the Board by Congress.
Labor board denies union election for O’Connell Children’s Shelter residential staff
April 4, 2025 // “This campaign, it’s already been delayed by like six months, and at this point, if we were to appeal with all of the crazy stuff happening at the federal level and in the NLRB right now, due to the Trump administration, they’ve already got a backlog of appeals to go through, and we just don’t know how much time it could actually be and if it would be worth it,” she said. This was the fourth union campaign Smith said she’s worked and the first one where she’s seen supervisory taint stall unionization efforts. She and her colleagues were shocked by the decision.
Trump fires EEOC and labor board officials, setting up legal fight
January 29, 2025 // Due to existing vacancies, Wilcox's ouster leaves the board with just two members, short of the quorum it needs to adjudicate even routine cases. (The board, when fully staffed, has five members.) With this move, Trump has effectively shut down the NLRB's operations, leaving the workers it defends on their own, AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler said in a statement.
Legal Update: Three Major NLRB Updates Pose New Challenges for Employers
December 9, 2024 // Employers must remain diligent in staying abreast of these recent shifts in labor law and policy, especially on the cusp of an administration change. While GC Abruzzo’s term appears likely to end early in 2025, and the Board majority could flip in 2025 or 2026, the new Republican administration’s position on labor policy remains unclear, especially in light of the recent nomination of a pro-labor nominee to lead the Department of Labor.