Effect of Great Recession on employee attitudes

Well, its inevitable this study would be done. And equally inevitable its probably been done several times with varying questions. Quick take: Employees are waking up to life outside of work, and the importance of family as a direct effect of the Great Recession. For some of us, we were rescued earlier. My liberation occurred when a longtime local client was acquired by a multi-national firm, after which they never called again. This occurrence is of course, by no means unique to me, but it made this professional pause and rethink the boundaries of commitment to serving clients before family. The oldest of my 4 children was 12 at the time. After that point, I never missed a school event or an athletic event because of work conflicts. The best part was most client representatives (and even judges) completely understood the point.

NFL lockout and collateral damage

The NFL is big business and the collateral damage from a lockout would hurt more than just the players and the owners.

NFL lockout and collateral damage

The NFL is big business and the collateral damage from a lockout would hurt more than just the players and the owners.

Spying costs

Remember the school district that engaged in surveillance using the district laptops to spy on students at home, previously posted here and here? The school board just approved a $610,000 settlement.

The Multi-Employer pension plan disaster

There are many good reasons to advise a client to beware participation in union sponsored multi-employer pension plans. None the least of which is the crushing withdrawal liability imposed upon small employers who who are vulnerable to the extraordinary and excessive underfunding issues exacerbated by the great recession and investment value declines. While there has been some improvement, the issue still confronts many employers. Thats whats particularly wrong when commentators characterize any government action to address the problem as a bailout for unions.  Its not. Its a bailout for employers saddled with underfunding liability as well as a bailout for participants, many who have worked years for promised pension benefits now in jeopardy.

Punishment by litigation

Sometimes doubling down on a doomsday strategy can work, but more often than not, it does not, is expensive, and has dire ultimate consequences. The issue of retaliatory litigation and whether a labor organization can prevail against an employer is a significant one. The Supreme Court addressed the issue in BE and K Construction. More after the jump.

Social Media Discovery ordered

A New York trial court has ruled that a personal injury plaintiff has no reasonable expectation of privacy on her Myspace and Facebook pages even those protected by privacy settings. Romano v. Steelcase, Inc. throws around legal concepts and seems to take a more difficult path to reach its result than necessary, but it provides a good source of citation to cases from several jurisdictions.

Social Media as litigation tool

The New York State Bar has issued an ethics opinion that accessing the public pages of a social network site to gather information on a litigation opponent is ethical. HAt Tip to the always interesting Adjunct Law Prof Blog.

Dead EFCA beaten again

Dead horse beaten for lively political purposes.

Sanity flu out the window

Do three in ten healthcare workers really intend NOT to get a flu shot? Do almost 50% of an "at risk" group (those over 65) really intend NOT to get a flu shot. And does over thirty percent of the public believe flu shots don't work? Is this a non-political example of the ever increasing gulf between fact and opinion that seems to afflict the public?

Woman to challenge Hoffa

Longtime Teamster and President of New York Teamster Local 805, Sandy Pope, says she intends to challenge James P. Hoffa for the presidency of the International union next year. Pope, active in Teamsters for a Democratic Union, has been a Teamster for 30 years. About 30% of the 1.3 million member union is female.

Foul!

The National Basketball Association (NBA) wants to cut down on complaints and gestures which show insufficient respect for the referees or the game. Arguing a call or other offensive conduct, even if not directed at the game official may result in a technical foul. Technical fouls can also lead to player fines. The players association file unfair labor practices in the 2006-07 season, and again threatens legal action. Griping at work about work rules certainly is protected by the National Labor Relations Act. Can the league establish a business justification for the muzzling of the complaints? Would a technical foul remedy do as much injury to the game as complaining?

Whose happy at work?

Ever wonder whose got job satisfaction? Here is an analysis of the top 50 happiest occupations.

Dead horse again

EFCA is a dead horse that keeps getting beaten. If anymore proof is necessary look at what these candidates in close senate races are saying. Truly labor has itself to blame here for insisting on card check as the cornerstone of labor law reform. All that insistence did is create a sound bite for the opposition. "We oppose getting rid of secret ballot elections." By its own insistence labor allowed itself to be portrayed as undemocratic and even unAmerican. There is zero chance EFCA will get passed in a lame duck session.

Why the lack of jobs creation

Paul Krugman says its because there was inadequate government spending on things that create jobs.

18,290-11,364

As always Randy Shaw has an informative piece on the NUHW loss to SEIU in the Kaiser election.

Net job loss caused by public sector decline

Government sector employment declined by 159,000 last month while private sector jobs increased by 64,000 according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The unemployment rate remained at 9.6%.

Trumka: Unions will be outspent

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says for the 2010 midterms, he expects unions to be out spent 20-1 by "corporate groups aligned with Republicans."

Local Sodexho employees picket

Employees of Sodexho serving the Recovery School District and Loyola and Tulane Universities have been picketing to publicize complaints about low wages and other grievances.

Job losses and economic disaster

AFL-CIO blog correctly characterizes the Avondale layoffs, which are underway, as a huge economic disaster for New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. As our marshes erode so do manufacturing jobs. While it may be hyperbole to compare the effects of the Avondale closure to the BP oil spill, long term it may not be.

10(j) injunctions

The NLRB's Acting General Counsel Lafe Solomon has announced his intention to consider seeking 10(j) injunctions when employees are fired during organizing campaigns. Section 10(j), authorizes the NLRB to seek preliminary injunctions from federal courts to protect victims of unfair labor practices pending litigation.

Symphony strike

Detroit Symphony contemplates its 5th strike since 1969. The big issue is paycuts affecting the average base salary of $104,650.

Rat redux

More on the rat from WaPo.

Rats! again

Bloomberg has an article about the inflatable rat. Former New Orleans labor attorney Bill Lurye is quoted. Bill is now Associate General Counsel with the AFL-CIO.

Public employee speech - Protected?

Public employees free speech rights are limited. Those unaware of that concept need to read up on Garcetti v. Ceballos, and review subsequent developments, particularly case law in the Fifth Circuit. But what happens when an employee is not disciplined for provocative if not outrageous speech, as in this case where an assistant attorney general takes out after a gay college student in a blog. Good synopsis of the purported events from Workplace Prof Blog is here. Isn't the nexus between the AAG's job and allegations of what may be criminal misconduct by the college student sufficient to make discipline for the remarks appropriate under Garcetti? Probably, but there has been no discipline so far. So what happens if another AAG (or some other public sector employee)speaks out in support of the college student, or in opposition to the issues raised by the first AAG, and is disciplined? Does Garcetti prevent that public employee from even getting to the Pickering test requiring a justification for content based distinctions?

Labor engages for 2010 mid-terms

Big labor is "all in" to elect candidates (Democrats) favorable to it.

Employees share rises

The average cost of family health insurance coverage rose 3% to $13,770 in 2010, while at the same time the employee's share of the cost of employer sponsored healthcare plans jumped 14% ($482).

Tax cuts for business

President Obama has signed into law the Small Business Jobs Act which, among other things, will allow all businesses to write-off 50 percent of the cost of depreciable property purchased and placed in service anytime during 2010.

FMLA claim costly for employer

MSNBC focuses on the plight of a retail store manager who claims she was coerced into returning to work too soon after surgery. Using this anecdotal incident the author claims the economy is creating widespread fear of job loss in those who are entitled to take sick leave. However there is little additional information supporting the premise. After being fired the manager successfully sued winning an eye-popping $8.1 Million jury verdict for FMLA violations.

Avondale closing

Labor joins effort to save Avondale jobs.

Yikes!

According to a recent survey, more than half of unemployed workers receiving a job offer received one involving at least a 25% reduction from their former compensation.

More GM jobs created

Only the political crazies still complain about saving our domestic auto companies being a bad idea. GM is creating jobs again, and that is indisputably a good thing.

75 years of labor law

Here is an overview of labor law for the last 75 years (pro-labor).

Tenth Circuit ADEA pro-employee opinion

Jones v. Oklahoma City Public Schools, a Tenth Circuit opinion, is an important read for practitioners handling ADEA claims. The plaintiff had been employed since 1969 and had risen in the system to an executive position. In 20007 a new superintendent eliminated the position plaintiff held, but renamed it and filled it with a younger worker. More after the jump

Non-majority unions

Here is a pretty good review (pro-labor) of the case for permitting minority unionization which would circumvent any need to prove a union's majority status.

Dana Corp misrepresented

My students and readers of this blog know my support for Dana Corp's approach to ensure that employees' right to select union representation by a majority vote is protected against abuse when a union seeks to establish majority support by card check which would support voluntary recognition of the union by an employer. This poster gets the import of the case correct. However, the representation that undoing Dana Corp is a novel way to impose EFCA-esque card check recognition is at best erroneous, and perhaps pure political posturing, as is other political comentary in the post. Undoing Dana Corp would return the law of voluntary recognition to its decades long, stable procedures which existed before the Bush majority NLRB decided Dana Corp in 2007. We do not see this as positive change because it diminishes a protection for workers (much as we believe card check recognition in EFCA would do), but it is not a radical departure form pre-2007 Board law. More background on Dana Corp's effect here.

More decertification votes

Redskins, Colts and Philadelphia unanimously vote to authorize decertification of the NFLPA. And for more background on NFL labor issues click here.

Union song contest posted

The AFL-CIO blog has posted 45 songs in the union song contest. Enjoy.

More teams vote to decertify

The Cowboys and Eagles are reported to have joined the Saints in unanimously voting to decertify the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA).

12 Million new jobs?

OK, its Andy Stern, but at least he's thinking big about jobs. The job sharing idea is real intriguing, it appears to have worked in Germany earlier this year, and it has support from the left and the right.

Dana Corp and EFCA

The 2007 NLRB decision in Dana Corp. probably irritated labor as much as any decision of the Bush Board. Essentially it gave employees an opportunity to contest the validity of a showing of a union's majority status by card check. Before a card check campaign could result in certification of a union, employees must be notified and provided a 45 day window to rally against card check and present evidence sufficient for the NLRB to conduct a secret ballot election. In reality this approach created a rationale safety valve to prevent coercive card check tactics. We have argued before unions should have embraced this model and should have adopted it as their reform proposal. It would have liberated the labor reform movement from the valid accusation it was attempting to eliminate secret ballot elections. Under Dana, the unions have seen few card check majorities successfully challenged. Thus, unions could have likely attained a new election process model which would have allowed majority status to be established by card check, subject only to employees havinv=g a brief window in which to challenge the validity of the card check majority. This article does a pretty good job of reviewing the issues. Unfortunately it looks like the new NLRB will revert to the old law under which a union can obtain voluntary recognition from an employer based upon card check alone. Frankly, this incentivizes collusion between an employer and a labor organization to accept a card majority which may not reflect the informed choice of a majority of the employees at any given time. There were a lot of questionable decisions by the Bush Board overturning years of Board precedent, but Dana Corp was not one of them. It properly protected the employees interest in having their collective will more likely determined in a fair manner.

NFL lockout 2011

More on the issues between the NFL and the NFLPA, and the possible 2011 lockout. Former Saint Rickey Jackson makes a poignant assessment.

President: Chance of passing EFCA "not real high."

The Hill notes that President Obama conceded yesterday that the chances of passing EFCA are "not real high" although the legislation retains the administration's support. But passing a law is not the only path to change. The President also noted that many of the changes to the rules of union organizing sought by labor could be enacted administratively without need for congressional action.

Mott's strike ends

After 114 days the strike by workers against Mott's will end next week as workers return to work on day 120. The latest proposal does not contain wage cuts, but there are no wage increases during the three years of the contract. Pensions are retained for current workers, but new hires may not participate in the pension plan, although new hires will receive  higher 401(k) contributions. The returning employees will also receive a $1,000 signing bonus.

NFL labor issues

The NFLPA is passing out cards to players setting the stage to request a vote on decertifying the union as the collective bargaining representative of the players. Rumor has it the Saints have unanimously voted for decertification. It is most unusual for a labor organization to seek to destroy its right to bargain for a group of employees it represents. But in this case NFLPA seems to think decertification is a defense against a potential lockout by owners when the current collective bargaining agreement expires in March. More after the jump.

Debating a dead horse

More EFCA debate here.

Oopsie

Sometimes employers can make critical mistakes that create serious problems on their own. It appears this supermarket employer has done so. In collective bargaining, an employer creates a huge, unnecessary problem for itself when it claims it cannot afford to meet a union's economic demands. When the employer does rely upon economic justifications to reject union economic demands, the union is entitled to examine the employers books and other financial data in order to bargain effectively. When the company refuses to provide the financials, the NLRB will issue a complaint, and in the linked article, it appears the NLRB has sought immediate federal court injunctive relief. Had the employer rejected the union's demands, and maintained that the demands were not in the best interests of the company (as opposed to claiming it could not afford the economic demands), it would not have exposed its financial data to union scrutiny.

More on Mott's strike

The AFL-CIO has more on the Mott's strike. The blog article itself doesn't add much, but check out the links. Again its nice to have the issues surrounding the strike reported across the opinion spectrum. It helps to place the strike in context and allows an economic analysis of the issues.

Reducing unemployment

The Director of Economic Policy at the American Enterprise Institute, Kevin Hassett, says reducing the minimum wage to $5.85 an hour (about a 25% decrease) and concession bargaining by unions would have a major impact on unemployment. Of course this would not address the actual causes of the Great Recession, only impose its effects even more harshly upon employees. If thats not enough, the Economic Policy Institute says corporate profits are 5.7% higher than in the 4th quarter of 2007, while the number of jobs is 5.9% lower. This L.A. Times opinion piece excoriates Hassett's idea too.

Safety is concern one

The National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago has released a new metadata study concluding that workplace safety is the most important workplace issue for 85% of workers. The press release is here. The full study is available here.