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13 Jul 2012 Fight over unionization of Michigan home health care workers continues in federal court and at the ballot box in November

Uncategorized | btlabor

Michigan has seen many changes in its laws regarding public employee unions since Republican Governor Rick Snyder took office in 2011.  As we previously noted, some of the controversial public labor legislation passed by Michigan’s Republican-controlled legislature in the last year includes a requirement that public union employees pay at least 20% of their health care costs, a ban on graduate student organizing, and a bar against payroll deductions for public school employee union dues…

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12 Jul 2012 NLRB Weekly Summary of Decisions – July 2-6, 2012

Uncategorized | btlabor

The National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) weekly summary of decisions for last week, July 2-6, 2012, is now available on the Board’s website. The summary of NLRB decisions can be accessed by visiting 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…

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10 Jul 2012 Ohio Public Employee Picketing Provision Declared Unconstitutional

Uncategorized | Keith Brodie

A recent opinion of the Ohio Appeals Court dealt a victory to picketing public employees when it found the state’s decades-old law regulating strikes and picketing by public employees unconstitutional as an impermissible restriction on free speech. The Ohio statute at issue was part of the state’s act governing bargaining rights of public employees and included a provision making it an unfair labor practice for a public employee labor organization to “engage in any picketing, striking,…

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06 Jul 2012 NLRB Invalidates Off-Duty Access Rule

Uncategorized | Gerald Lutkus

The National Labor Relations Board continues to slice and dice employer policies and has now ruled that a hospital policy restricting employees’ off-duty access violates Section 8(a)(1) of the NLRA. USC University Hospital in Los Angeles has an Off-Duty Access Policy which provides that:  “Off-duty employees are not allowed to enter or re-enter the interior of the Hospital or any other work areas outside the Hospital except to visit a patient, receive medical treatment or…

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03 Jul 2012 Michigan: PLA Deja Vu All Over Again?

Uncategorized | Gerald Lutkus

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder has signed into law Michigan’s second attempt to regulate mandatory project labor agreements (PLA) on taxpayer-funded construction. Michigan adopted a similar bill in 2011, but a federal district court invalidated it in February 2011 ruling that the Act attempted to regulate a field that was preempted by the National Labor Relations Act.  That decision is on appeal to the 6th Circuit.  A similar ruling on a similar statute in Idaho is also on…

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02 Jul 2012 Supreme Court Asks The Feds to Weigh In On Illinois Union Fees System

Uncategorized | Gerald Lutkus

At the end of a busy week, the United States Supreme Court asked the U.S. Solicitor General to weigh in on an Illinois regulatory system which requires home care workers to pay union fees. The request arises out of the home care workers’ lawsuit which alleges that their classification as public employees (which requires payment of union dues) violates their First Amendment rights. The trial court dismissed their claims and the Seventh Circuit affirmed the dismissal….

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27 Jun 2012 NLRB Orders Bilingual “Shaming”

Uncategorized | Steve Hernandez

On June 25, 2012, the NLRB overruled an ALJ’s rejection of a requested “shaming”  order and required that the CEO of a California employer read its order aloud to company employees in both Spanish and English. In Marquez Brothers Enterprises, found here, the ALJ found that the employer committed multiple unfair labor practices, but concluded that “there is nothing extraordinary about the unfair labor practices committed” and thus did not address the General Counsel’s request for an order requiring a remedial notice…

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26 Jun 2012 NLRB’s Acting General Counsel Addresses Controversial Complaint Regarding At-Will Employment Language and Other Employee Handbook Provisions

Uncategorized | Scott Witlin

On June 11, 2012, NLRB Acting General Counsel, Lafe Solomon, addressed the Connecticut Bar Association, specifically discussing the issuance a complaint in February by Region 28 alleging a multitude of violations arising from the various rules contained in the company’s employee handbook.  Among rules alleged to be in violation of the NLRA was an employee acknowledgment that employment was at-will employment and that at-will status only could be altered by a statement signed by the employee and either the executive vice-president or chief operating…

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22 Jun 2012 “Going Back to School” – NLRB To Review Graduate Student Assistant Issue (Again)

Uncategorized | btlabor

Are graduate student assistants seeking to be represented by a union employees under the National Labor Relations Act?  That is a question the NLRB is intent on answering (again).  The Board has granted review in two cases addressing the issue.  The Board also invited briefs from interested parties, asking, among other things, whether its 2004 decision in Brown University should be overruled. In that case the Board held that graduate student assistants typically were not considered…

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22 Jun 2012 NLRB Weekly Summary of Decisions – June 11-15, 2012

Uncategorized | btlabor

The National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) weekly summary of decisions for last week, June 11-15, 2012, is now available on the Board’s website. The summary of NLRB decisions can be accessed by visiting 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…

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