Category: Labor Law

Happy Holidays From The NLRB:  Your Carefully Crafted Social Media Policy May Amount To A Per Se Violation Of The National Labor Relations Act

Happy Holidays From The NLRB: Your Carefully Crafted Social Media Policy May Amount To A Per Se Violation Of The National Labor Relations Act

Set forth below is the article from one of our partners regarding the recent NLRB Complaint, stemming from a posting on Facebook. Happy Holidays from the NLRB Depending on the study cited, as many as: • 79% of people in the U.S. age 18 and older were on-line in some fashion as of May 2010 • Of those on-line adults,...

Granite Rock Co. vs. International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Arbitration Issues Arising from a Disputed Collective Bargaining Agreement

Granite Rock Co. vs. International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Arbitration Issues Arising from a Disputed Collective Bargaining Agreement

Granite Rock Co. v. International Brotherhood of Teamsters On June 24, 2010, in the final labor and employment law decision of its 2009-10 term, the Supreme Court decided the Granite Rock Co. v. International Brotherhood of Teamsters case and resolved two important issues in federal labor law.  Granite Rock centered around a dispute over the formation of a collective bargaining...

New Process Steel LP v. NLRB, Supreme Court Rules On NLRB Composition

New Process Steel LP v. NLRB, Supreme Court Rules On NLRB Composition

On June 17, 2010, a sharply divided United States Supreme Court resolved the case of New Process Steel LP v. NLRB. The highly anticipated decision resolved a Circuit split that had developed after the National Labor Relations Board, which normally has five members, spent 27 months issuing decisions as a two-member body. In a 5-4 decision, written by Justice Stevens...

Unionization of Home Based Employees, Quirky Question # 91

Unionization of Home Based Employees, Quirky Question # 91

Quirky Question #91: I own a company with a nationwide work force, and all of our employees work out of their homes.  I am hearing rumors that these employees may try to organize a union.  Is this possible?  Aren’t unions for employees working at a single factor or facility?  Once my employees are hired, we meet as a group only...

Changes to Nation’s Employment Laws

Changes to Nation’s Employment Laws

Dorsey’s Analysis of Changes to the Nation’s Employment Laws The advent of the Obama Administration is likely to result (and already has resulted) in sweeping changes to federal labor and employment laws and, accordingly, the relationship between employers and their employees. As we approach the 100th day of the new Administration, we have compiled a user-friendly summary guide to several...

14 Penn Plaza: US Supreme Court Decision

14 Penn Plaza: US Supreme Court Decision

U.S. Supreme Court Enforces Agreement Compelling Unionized Employees to Arbitrate Discrimination Claims Dorsey’s Analysis On April 1, 2009, an ideologically divided United States Supreme Court resolved a long-standing controversy regarding the arbitration of discrimination claims of union-represented employees.  The Court’s decision in 14 Penn Plaza v. Byett resolved a split and an issue of confusion among lower courts, and the...

Buttons Worn by Union Employees, Quirky Question # 44

Buttons Worn by Union Employees, Quirky Question # 44

Quirky Question # 44: I am a nursing supervisor working in a 250-bed acute care hospital.  We have been engaged in protracted contract negotiations with the union representing our registered nurses for several months.  Negotiations have bogged down over the nurses’ demand that their contract be amended to delete any provision for mandatory overtime to be assigned to nurses under...

Use of Email for Union Organizing, Quirky Question # 31

Use of Email for Union Organizing, Quirky Question # 31

Quirky Question # 31: Our company provides desktop computer terminals with email to virtually all of our employees.  We have adopted a policy covering the use of all of our Company-provided communications systems, including telephones, computers and email, fax machines and photocopy machines.  Our policy provides, “Communication systems are not to be used to solicit or proselytize for commercial ventures,...