The Summary of NLRB decisions for the week of February 2 – 6, 2015, is now available on the NLRB’s website. btlaborBT Labor Relations is managed by the labor law attorneys at Barnes & Thornburg. The blog aims to be a source for news, analysis, and commentary on traditional labor legal issues, including news related to the NLRB and a variety of state issues.More Posts – Website
READ MOREAs we reported over a year ago, among the several lawsuits filed challenging Michigan’s Right to Work law was a suit claiming the procedure used when passing the law in December 2012 violated Michigan’s Open Meetings Act. The union groups who filed the lawsuit, supported by the ACLU, premised their claim on the fact that due to action by law enforcement closing the Capitol Building for safety reasons, members of the public were prevented from…
READ MOREThe Summary of NLRB decisions for the week of January 26 – 30, 2015, is now available on the NLRB’s website. btlaborBT Labor Relations is managed by the labor law attorneys at Barnes & Thornburg. The blog aims to be a source for news, analysis, and commentary on traditional labor legal issues, including news related to the NLRB and a variety of state issues.More Posts – Website
READ MORESince Indiana became a Right-to-Work state, one of the most common employer questions has been – what can I tell my employees about when they can withdraw their dues authorization forms? The NLRB last week, in a non-RTW context, did give us some guidance – even though it’s probably guidance that most employers wouldn’t necessarily welcome. The Board examined letters drafted by an employer and found that the letters, particularly in the context of…
READ MOREImmediately after last November’s mid-term elections, we reported on some of the labor law changes Republicans might attempt once gaining control of the Senate. See our prior post here. As predicted, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senator Lamar Alexander, Chairman of the Labor Committee, have introduced the “NLRB Reform Act,” Senate Bill 288. The bill would increase the number of NLRB members from five to six; give parties 30 days to file in…
READ MOREThe Summary of NLRB decisions for the week of January 20 – 23, 2015, is now available on the NLRB’s website. btlaborBT Labor Relations is managed by the labor law attorneys at Barnes & Thornburg. The blog aims to be a source for news, analysis, and commentary on traditional labor legal issues, including news related to the NLRB and a variety of state issues.More Posts – Website
READ MOREThe U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has released its annual report on unionization data in the United States, and the numbers continue to be on the decline for unions as a whole. Membership in unions nationally dropped from 11.3 percent in 2013 to 11.1 percent in 2014. Other interesting data points in the report include: Public-sector workers had a union membership rate of 35.7 percent, more than five times higher than that of private-sector…
READ MORESince December of last year, five different counties in Kentucky have passed “right-to-work laws” making it illegal for employers within their borders to require union membership as a condition of employment. While 24 states have passed such laws to date, this appears to be the first time efforts by smaller units of “state government” (i.e., counties) have been undertaken on this front. While the NLRA allows “states” to pass and implement right-to-work laws, it is…
READ MOREThe Summary of NLRB decisions for the week of January 12 – 16, 2015, is now available on the NLRB’s website. btlaborBT Labor Relations is managed by the labor law attorneys at Barnes & Thornburg. The blog aims to be a source for news, analysis, and commentary on traditional labor legal issues, including news related to the NLRB and a variety of state issues.More Posts – Website
READ MORELong-standing U.S. Supreme Court precedent provides that where a federal law results in “excessive entanglement” of the government with religion, it is unconstitutional under the freedom of religion clauses in the First Amendment. This limitation applies equally to the NLRB as a government agency. For decades, the agency struggled to determine whether asserting jurisdiction over religious employers in the education context would result in such entanglement, and on numerous occasions federal courts reversed the NLRB’s…
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