Toothless NLRB

Looks like the overseas view of the NLRB is a bleak one. Many good points raised, but the factual support seems a little thin for some observations that the "toothless" NLRB is irrelevant. Increased budget, increased staffing and increased penalties for violations would quickly revitalize the NLRB's stature and ability to shape labor relations.

Mott's strike continues

Here is the UFCW/RWDSU's update on the Mott's strike. The unions explanation is the corporate greed story. Profits are up, the stock is up, and the company is demanding a $1.50 an hour wage cut. Our prior post is here.

SCOTUS accepts third party retaliation case for next Term

Retaliation against an employee who complains about discrimination is unlawful. But when a female complains about discrimination and the subsequent adverse action alleged is taken against her husband or boyfriend is the victim of a third party reprisal protected? The Fifth Circuit has long held no, they are not. On the last day of the Term, the Supreme Court granted Cert. in Thompson v. North American Stainless LP, No. 09-291. Thompson was fired after his fiancee complained about discrimination. More after the jump.

Berkeley Bowl decertification

By a vote of 99-74 employees at a San Francisco supermarket voted to decertify the UFCW. This BeyondChron article provides some inside analysis of the "why" it happened. More after the jump.

AARRRRRRRRRGGGG!

The AFL-CIO opposes piracy. Says it costs jobs, lots of jobs.

Summertime (and the livin' is easy)

Not so easy. Some pretty good tips about HR do's and don'ts for the company picnic.

Arbitrator or Court

The Supreme Court rendered an interesting decision in a case where an employer sued a local union for alleged violations of the no strike provisions of a collective bargaining agreement and an international union for tortious interference with the CBA. The local union claimed there was no violation of the CBA because it was not ratified as of the time of the alleged violation of the no strike clause. The 7 member majority opinion (Thomas) held the ratification date issue was one for a court to decide, rather than an arbitrator. A unanimous court refused to extend "federal common law" to include tortious interference with a contract  as a claim cognizable under LMRA § 301. But the really interesting part is after the jump.

Strike enters 7th year

Workers at Chicago's Congress Hotel have been on strike for seven years with no end in sight. Workers were told in 2003, there would be no raises until 2010. The employer has not budged on its wage proposal during the 7 year strike. Members of UNITE HERE gathered with local politicians and clergy to "celebrate the anniversary with speechifying and solidarity. Details here and here. We have previously posted about the injunction the hotel sought against the City to prevent the City from interfering in the labor dispute.

BNA publishes book on NLRA rights in non-union workplaces

Perhaps its a prediction about where the NLRB will go under the Obama Board, perhaps its a result of an absence of new laws to write about, but BNA has put together a new book on the rights afforded by the NLRA to workers in non-union employment. As my labor law class knows, there are many infrequently used protections against retaliation for engaging in rights afforded by the NLRA.

Senate confirms two NLRB nominees

The Senate confirmed the nominations of Brian Hayes, a Republican and Mark Pearce, a Democrat for full terms as NLRB members. No action was taken on controversial nominee Craig Becker.

Grades, jobs and all that

The New York Times reports at least ten law schools, including Tulane have adjusted their grading systems upward - retroactively! Largely viewed as a way to rescue recent grads floundering in a tough job market, it seems band-aid weird to me. Teaching students how to provide value to employers and clients rather than grading reform would be a more substantive fix.

UAW changes

New UAW President Bob King speaking to autoworkers assembled in Detroit, set twin goals for the labor organizations future. King an attorney and political science major, wants to grow membership and repair the union's image. The linked article describes some of the things he says the union must do to achieve these goals. One of the agenda items is targeting Toyota for organizing efforts.

Carmakers comeback

We have previously discussed the sillyness of the politicization of the GM and Chrysler bailouts. These car proxy wars were approached by anti-union bloggers as serious life or death struggles in the war against advancing socialism. Ridiculous! More after the jump

New (statutory interpretation) Process

We've just had a quick read of the New Process Steel opinion. Essentially the 5 member majority (Stevens, Roberts, Scalia, Alito, Thomas) reason through the language of §3(b) of the NLRA to conclude the authority of a 3 member delegation of the NLRB ceases to exist when the term of one member of the three expires. I must admit the dissent written by Justice Kennedy (and joined by Ginsburg, Breyer and Sotomayor) makes more sense. The statutory interpretation opinion is less significant that the open questions concerning the 600+ cases decided by the two member NLRB. The NLRB has issued a press release concerning the 5 cases pending before the Supreme Court and the 69 cases pending before the Courts of Appeals. Likely these cases will be remanded to the NLRB.
In New Process, the Supreme Court vacated and remanded. Likely the Court of Appeals will vacate the NLRB decision and remand to the NLRB. (We think this is the likely result in all the pending cases.) But what about the cases that are final? Are the decisions null due to an absence of proper delegation? Or are they final judgments not subject to collateral attack? Would the NLRB entertain a motion to reconsider the final cases. likely not in the later instance since the cases decided were sufficiently non controversial for the two remaining members, one a democrat and the other a republican, to agree on a result. Could the now properly populated Board globally reaffirm the entirety of the two-member decisions? And also what becomes of the other delegations? The majority opinion notes without comment that "the Board delegated to the general counsel continuing authority to initiate and conduct litigation that would normally require case-by-case approval of the Board." Is the general counsel's authority to act defective, and what effect would that have on pending and decided cases.

SCOTUS decides Quon

A nearly unanimous Court reverses the Ninth Circuit in City of Ontario, et al v, Quon, et al, No. 08–1332. Argued April 19, 2010—Decided June 17, 2010. More after digesting

SCOTUS rejects 2 member NLRB decisions

Hot off the presses (what and odd anachronism), the Supreme Court has rejected the Board's authority to issue 2-member decisions. New Process Steel, L.P. v. NLRB, No. 08–1457. Argued March 23, 2010—Decided June 17, 2010.  I wont have time until later to digest the opinion by Justice Stevens, but the 5-4 decision does create a backlog of now undecided cases. More about this later.

Labor nets 3 top lobyists

The Hill identifies 2010's top lobbyists. Of the list of 32, only three are connected to labor unions. (Henry-SEIU, Loveless-AFSCME and Trumka-AFL-CIO).

Goose/Gander

At a recent speech, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka proclaimed, "We won't quit until the EFCA becomes the law of the land and everyone who wants a union can have a union." But what about employees in a workforce that do not want a union. Shouldn't they have a corresponding right not to have a union affect their employment? What's good for the goose is good for the gander. But thats not the way the National Labor Relations Act works. Under the Act, majority rules, and the will of the minority is subject to the wishes of the majority. While it is true in right to work states that employees do not have to join a labor organization, if a union is the collective bargaining agent for a bargaining unit that includes the employee's job classification, the union's negotiations and the union contract affect the employee non-member. Following Trumka's logic, that should not be the case. Those who want union representation should have it, and those that do not should not be forced to endure it. Perhaps its time to experiment by allowing non-majority unions who represent only those employees who voluntarily choose to join. Those who choose not to select union representation would be free to negotiate on their own. There are a lot of reasons this approach was rejected under the Wagner Act, but maybe its time to revisit the concept.

UAW meets

The UAW is meeting in Detroit to elect officers and discuss their future. Take a look at the article to get a sense of the state of the union, but don't miss clicking on the chart which documents the UAW over the last 75 years. Current membership is 392,166, down from its 1979 high of 1,527,858.

Ladies' night is discriminatory

This comes up every once and a while (not around here), but several jurisdictions believe "gender based pricing" of ow-kee-hawl discriminates against men. Yep, ladies night is discriminatory in Minnesota. I do not know any guys who would file that complaint. Well maybe I do, but I wouldn't go drinking with them. The price of the drink ain't why the guys flock to ladies night. It's the opportunity uh, ambiance that costs extra. Sure, in theory, pricing a product differently due to the gender of the purchaser makes a classic case of gender discrimination. But WTF! The ow-kee hawl isn't the only reason the guys are there drinking.

Strikers and unemployment

We do not see a lot of lockouts in this part of the country. In the Temple nurses' labor dispute the fact of a lockout dramatically affected the cost of the labor dispute. Under Pennsylvania law strikers are not eligible for unemployment, but when the employer locks out the employees, the employees are eligible for unemployment. More details in this news article.

Secret Ballot goes electronic?

Looks like the NLRB aims to modernize voting. This Request for Information indicates the Board is seeking information on "secure electronic voting services both for remote and on-site elections." Not sure how much to read into this, but its clear the Board is seeking more than just accurate secret electronic voting. In the request the Board seeks information on "what safeguards, if any, could be implemented to ensure that votes cast remotely were free from distractions or other interferences, including undue intimidation or coercion." At the very least a serious review of the available technology is underway.

Labor as "big loser"

Washington Post political columnist Chris Cilizza, tags labor as a "big time" loser in the recent primary elections for its "all in" approach to defeating Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D. Arkansas). Reportedly labor spent $10 million to defeat Lincoln. Lincoln defeated Lt. Gov. Bill Halter 52%-48%.

Union rags

Ever heard of the National Organized Labor Journal? How about the Trade Union Courier?
The Newspaper Guild has a good piece on why you should be glad to not know these publications.

Reich on labor

Former Secretary of Labor under Bill Clinton, Robert Reich, notes in a recent interview EFCA could still pass in a watered down form (no card check, quickie elections and heavier penalties). Reich also talks about labor's future, and its need to invest in organizing personal service workers.

Payback!

Ohio Governor Ted Strickland signed Executive Orders permitting independent home health providers and self-employed child care workers to unionize, the SEIU and AFSCME benefited with thousands of new dues paying members. Strickland has directly benefited from the labor organizations political contributions.

EFCA is be dead

We've said it. So has a politician. EFCA is deader than a doornail.

No solicitation of former coworkers

It had to happen. A former employee obligated to refrain from soliciting former coworkers has done so using social media, and been sued for violating the non-compete agreement.

Mississippi court refuses to enforce non-compete

The Southern District of Mississippi (Lee) refuses to enforce a non-compete involving a former general manager of Peavy Electronics Corporation who after leaving Peavy went to work as Director of Sales and Marketing of a California company which has some products which perform similarly to Peavy Products. Peavy Electronics Corporation v. Pinske, C.A. No. 4:10CV69TSL-LRA (So. D. Miss. June 1, 2010). More after the jump.