As a life-long employer advocate, I have to admit to the feeling of schadenfreude when I hear of the always sanctimonious unions getting caught violating the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) with their own employees. Unions love to catch and hold employers up as unfair when they allegedly violate labor law so it’s somewhat satisfying to see them reap what they sow.

Some recent developments are offering a glimpse of what the bizzarro world of the Republican Trump administration and his union support looks like. Most recently, is UAW President Shaun Fain giving warm public kudos to President Trump over his tariff initiatives; second is the incoming Labor Secretary who is also a Republican but supported the radical PRO Act that is being reintroduced again; and thirdly, is new labor legislation introduced just last week that would shorten the time between...

Two National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) decisions earlier this month continue the Biden Administration’s and the NLRB’s war against employer rights. The NLRB held in Amazon.com Services LLC (11/13/24) that employers violate worker rights when they require employees to attend meetings (even while being paid) to hear the employer’s side in a union organizing campaign. The second anti-employer decision the NLRB handed down this month held that employers commit an unfair...

Over the past few years, the federal Government has been giving tax dollars to failing union pension funds. We have written on this in the past, and the practice is continuing up through today (Failing Union Pension Funds Getting Huge Influx of Money from the PBGC. EPTW 2/7/2023). Last Friday the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) announced four more union pension funds that will receive upwards of $811.6 million. This latest tranche of money is going to four unions that for various...

Several years ago, Michigan corrected a labor wrong by removing a requirement that home care givers under Michigan’s Medicaid program be in a union. Many of these workers who had to pay union dues were family members receiving a stipend for providing those care services to people in their own family.

Another Labor Day has come and gone.  This weekend is set aside to celebrate our workers and typically unions.  For decades each Labor Day we have heard that the tide has turned, and unions are coming back.  Over the past few years, union activism and activity have “popped.” But what has resulted from this recent uptick in union activity?

Employers that hire outside consultants to help persuade workers to stay union free are required to file reports of this expenditure to the Department of Labor’s Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS) each year stating so. This is nothing new. Employers file an LM-10 within 90 days of the end of the employer’s fiscal year. The outside consultants also have to file two forms. One must be filed within 90 days from the end of the consultant’s fiscal year and another form...

Did you know that the costs for being unionized are far more than just increased wages and benefits?

A 2003 Employment Policy Foundation study found that a company with 10% of its workforce in a union could experience 2.6% higher unit labor costs and a 21% lower before-tax profit than its non-union counterparts.

Last week workers at the Mercedes-Benz plant near Tuskaloosa, Alabama voted down unionization by the United Auto Workers (UAW). The unofficial vote count was 2642 votes against vs. 2045 votes for the union. This came about a month after the UAW won its election at the Volkswagen (VW) plant further north in Chattanooga, Tennessee. There the UAW won 2628 votes for the union vs. 985 against the union.

Although many nonunion employers do not see the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) as impacting them, they are often surprised when an unfair labor practice charge (ULP) is issued against them.  These employers think the NLRB only protects union activity, but that’s not the case.  The NLRB protects all workers’ rights in the workplace and is the de facto union for nonunion workers.  Although in the past, ULPs have been fairly rare, they are rising today as...

In the midst of the NCAA March Madness, a distraction is taking place.   A regional director for the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled last month that members of the Dartmouth men's basketball team are employees of the school. This ruling will allow the basketball team to organize under the NLRB rules, and they decided to join Service Employees International Union (SEIU). 

Last Friday a federal judge struck down the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) regulations expanding its control over the job terms and conditions it uses to determine whether two employers are in fact one for the purposes of labor law application. The Joint Employer rule was supposed to take effect Monday (March 11th) from a previous court stay, but the Texas federal judge hearing the case vacated that decision and held the regulations were too far reaching in their scope for a federal...

Should workers violating a company dress code policy be protected under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) if they are wearing or displaying political slogans on their uniforms protesting for an issue unrelated to their work?

In the category of what’s good for the goose is good for the gander we have the pro-union National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) recently finding the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union engaged in a myriad of unfair labor practices with its own unionized staff who are members of FAIR. (Yes, unions have unions.)

Cemex Construction is challenging the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) “radical change” which would allow the NLRB to bypass an organizing election and order bargaining if it finds the employer engaged in an unfair labor practice during the campaign. It also extended the rules for requiring union election if the union demands recognition. Before this decision, an employer was not required to recognize a union and the union was the one that had to demand an election....

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported union membership continued to decline in 2023. The BLS reported that private sector union membership increased by 191,000 members during the year. Union representation was 11.2% of workers in 2023 down from 11.3% in 2022.

As we closed out 2023, unions continued to win recognition elections at a rate of almost 75%. In 2023 this percentage is from 1,316 certification elections run nationally. This included an overall win rate in September, 2023 of 91%. This win rate was for recognition certification elections – also called RC elections.

On December 26, 2023, representation case procedures changed under a rule published in August 2023 by the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”).  Essentially, the rule is reimplementing the 2014 Obama era “Quickie Election” rules.  

Labor contracts of large employers can significantly impact smaller related employers through a series of economic forces. One primary mechanism is the influence of wage and benefit standards set by major corporations within a specific industry. When large companies establish high standards in their labor contracts, it creates a benchmark that smaller employers often feel compelled to meet to attract and retain skilled and experienced workers.

Shaun Fain, UAW President, is not only taking a victory lap around the recent contract settlements with the Detroit Three, but he has also repeatedly vowed to organize the other non-union auto manufacturers and their suppliers so that in 2028 he will be bargaining against the Big Five or Six.

What the National Labor Relations Board seeks to give unions, the Courts taketh away. Since the beginning of the Biden era, the NLRB has issued ruling after ruling challenging employers’ policies as anti-union. Many policies that have been acceptable for years are now being cast as anti-union and in turn, an unfair labor practice.

Last Wednesday Ford Motor Company reached a tentative agreement with the United Auto Workers. Though it remains to be seen what else was agreed to, the tentative deal increases wages 25% over the life of the contract. Top wage jobs will see cumulative wages rise 30% to over $40/hr. Starting wages will increase 68% to over $28/hr.  Stellantis agreed to a similar deal last Saturday that mirrors the Ford deal.

As the UAW strike enters its 5^th week, Shawn Fain, UAW President, continues to call on more plants to strike and continues to increase pressure on the Detroit Three. Last week, Fain called on Ford’s Kentucky plant’s 8700 union workers to walk off the job having received Ford’s latest proposal at a meeting that Fain took just ten minutes to leave saying, “You just lost Kentucky Truck Plant.”

In a case before the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington D.C., the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is claiming a program that solicits employee feedback created a union because the company discussed the issues with the employees (T-Mobile v. NLRB, Nos. 22-1310 and 23-1002). 

Businesses that may face their own fallout from the UAW strike against the Detroit Three should be cognizant of some resources and obligations. During ASE’s bi-weekly Conversations with Mike & Tony webinar, we asked the participants if they foresaw a direct impact from the strike in the next 30 days. 26% said they did, and the biggest percentage of those indicated the impact would be employee layoffs.