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25 Oct 2013 Recall! Car Dealer’s Arbitration Policy Struck down by ALJ

Uncategorized | Adam Bartrom

Under the Board’s 2012 decision in D.R. Horton, an ALJ struck down a California car dealer’s arbitration policy. The ALJ held that although the car dealer’s mandatory arbitration policy did not contain an explicit class waiver, it uses language that could be construed by employees as only permitting individual arbitration actions. The ALJ’s decision seems to be another in a line of decisions where the Board (and its ALJs) look past the language of the…

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25 Oct 2013 Michigan’s Right to Work Law Gets Personal – Union Intimidation and Threats Alleged

Unions and Union Membership | Keith Brodie

Last month we blogged about how the Michigan Education Association (MEA), the union that represents the vast majority of Michigan’s teachers, only had one percent of teachers seeking to revoke dues payments under Michigan’s Right to Work Law.  Well, now we may know part of the reason why. The Mackinac Center Legal Foundation has filed unfair labor practices with the Michigan Employment Relations Commission (MERC) on behalf of seven teachers who say they were intimidated and bullied…

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24 Oct 2013 Unlawful to Condition Bargaining on the Result in Noel Canning

National Labor Relations Board | Gerald Lutkus

Can you condition bargaining with a Union on an agreement that the deal is off if the Supreme Court affirms the Noel Canning decision? An Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) for the NLRB this week said absolutely not. In Professional Transportation Inc., #12-CA-101034, Administrative Law Judge William Nelson Cates held that the company violated its duty under the NLRA to bargain in good faith when it insisted on conditional bargaining with the Teamsters. The union filed…

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23 Oct 2013 NLRB Back in Business, Griffin’s Nomination Before the Senate

National Labor Relations Board | Gerald Lutkus

It’s hard to be as lyrical as my partner Keith Brodie has been about the NLRB. The shutdown drove him to fitful bouts of “poetry” – if you can call it that. But this week, BT Labor Relations is no longer poetic, but rather back to the nuts and bolts as the NLRB grinds back to business. The basics are set out at the Board’s website at www.NLRB.gov on how filing deadlines will be handled…

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22 Oct 2013 A Weekly Summary of NLRB Decisions for Sept. 23-27 and Sept. 30-Oct. 4

National Labor Relations Board | Keith Brodie

The Summary of NLRB decisions for the weeks of Sept. 23 – 27, 2013 and Sept. 30 – Oct. 4, 2013 are now available on the NLRB’s website. The summaries can be accessed by clicking the links below.  Week of Sept. 23-27  Week of Sept. 30-Oct. 4  Keith BrodieKeith J. Brodie is a partner in Barnes & Thornburg LLP’s Grand Rapids, Michigan office. He devotes his practice exclusively to labor and employment law. He is…

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17 Oct 2013 NLRB Opens – Here We Go Again – Haiku

National Labor Relations Board | Keith Brodie

With the end of the government shutdown last night, the NLRB is once again open for business. Following up on our previous poetry post, we felt the occasion deserved another haiku: Today you are open Our mail box: ready, set, go Starting up, oh no! Keith BrodieKeith J. Brodie is a partner in Barnes & Thornburg LLP’s Grand Rapids, Michigan office. He devotes his practice exclusively to labor and employment law. He is a practitioner…

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07 Oct 2013 Poetic Musings on the Shutdown: Where oh Where is my NLRB?

National Labor Relations Board | btlabor

We’ve now been living with several years of creativity and novel reasoning by the Board: – At will disclaimer – illegal – really? (well, maybe not…)– Arbitration clauses – not so fast (and who cares what the U.S. Supreme Court says!)– To post or not to post – that is the question (the answer from federal courts: No!). And now, with the shutdown and the closure of the Board, we’ve been left with a creative…

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04 Oct 2013 Michigan Right to Work – What’s the Effect: A Data Point

State Labor Laws | Keith Brodie

How Michigan’s Right to Work law would ultimately impact union dues payer rolls has been a topic of some debate. Now we have a data point, but it may not tell the whole story. Michigan’s Right to Work law became effective March 28, 2013. The law gives employees the right to choose to join and/or financially support a union. In other words, it allows employees to retain the representational benefits of their union representation without…

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02 Oct 2013 Shutdown Closes NLRB Operations

National Labor Relations Board | btlabor

As a result of the federal government shutdown, yesterday NLRB operations ground to a halt. Many practitioners and employers during the a.m. hours received contact from Board Agents and Board Lawyers indicating that pending investigations, petition processing and the like were on hold until after the shutdown ends. The Board’s “Shutdown Plan” indicates that 1,600 of the Board’s 1,611 staff have been furloughed. All regional offices are closed and the only remaining staff are located…

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30 Sep 2013 Is The NLRB Being Unfair to Employers?

National Labor Relations Board | Gerald Lutkus

It’s one thing when representatives of management or members of the GOP or even management-side labor lawyers complain about the unfairness of the current NLRB; but it’s an altogether different cat when the Administrative Law Judges that hear NLRB proceedings join in the criticism. For the third time in about a month, another ALJ –Judge Keltner W. Locke – last week expressed his “concerns” about whether the GC was being “fair.” In Copper River of…

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