NLRB Refuses to Set Aside Election Based on Failure to Provide Home Phone Numbers

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
12/21/2022
In a decision issued on the last day of Member Ring's term, the NLRB ruled that an employer's failure to provide the union with  home phone numbers for five employees did not warrant setting aside the employer's election victory.  In MVM, Inc., 372 NLRB No. 32, the Board held that omitting the numbers for only five of the 92 employees while providing cell phone numbers for all employees "substantially complied" with the voting list requirements...
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NLRB Expands Remedies Available for Unfair Labor Practice Charges

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
12/19/2022
On December 13, 2022, the National Labor Relations Board issued a decision  that will substantially expand the relief available to an employee who prevails in an unfair labor practice charge proceeding.  The Board's decision in Thrive, Inc., 372 NLRB No. 22, holds that the standard "make-whole" remedy for an employee harmed by an employer's unfair labor practice includes compensation for "all direct or foreseeable pecuniary harm" resulting from...
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T-Mobile Violated Labor Law With Company Union

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
11/28/2022
One way an employer may violate the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) is to create a “company union.”  Under Section 8(a)(2) of the NLRA, it is an unfair labor practice for an employer “to dominate or interfere with the formation or administration of any labor organization or contribute financial or other support to it.”  A labor organization is “any organization of any kind, or any agency or employee representation committee or plan,...
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NLRB General Counsel Issues Guidance on Employer Use of Electronic Surveillance

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
10/31/2022
On October 31, 2022, the General Counsel to the National Labor Relations Board, Jennifer Abruzzo, issued a memorandum on the legality of an employer's use of electronic surveillance and algorithm-driven management.  In Memorandum GC 23-02, the General Counsel announced her intention to seek a new legal framework to analyze whether the use of such tools in the workplace violates the National Labor Relations Act.  Over the past decade, employers...
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Running a Business? Having Someone to Call for Labor Advice is a Good Idea

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
10/24/2022
Things are really heating up between Apple, Inc. (“Apple”) and the Communication Workers of America, AFL-CIO (“CWA”).  The CWA has been campaigning at numerous Apple retail stores, attempting to gain a foothold in the sector.  Earlier this year, an Apple store in Towson, Maryland voted to unionize, becoming Apple’s first US unionized location.  That store’s employees are represented by the International Association of Machinists and...
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Medieval Times Files Trademark Lawsuit Against Newly-Formed Union

Vincent Jackson
Vincent Jackson
10/20/2022
In a fascinating intersection of labor relations and trademark law, Medieval Times has sued a newly-formed union for improperly adopting and using its MEDIEVAL TIMES® trademark.   The case, filed in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey on October 13, 2022, seeks an injunction against the Union—Medieval Times Performers United—for unauthorized misappropriation of the MEDIEVAL TIMES mark.  Medieval Times (the...
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NLRB Overturns Precedent and Holds Tesla’s Dress Code Policy Violated NLRA

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
08/31/2022
On Monday, August 29, 2022, a five member panel of the National Labor Relations Board (the “Board”) reversed course on prior precedent and held that Tesla, Inc. (“Tesla”) violated Section 8(a)(1) of the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”) by maintaining a “team-wear” policy that, under the Board’s opinion, was unjustified under Supreme Court precedent.  The opinion, Tesla, Inc., 370 NLRB No. 88 (2021) reversed course on a...
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NLRB: No Union, No More Was OK

Darrell VanDeusen
Darrell VanDeusen
06/06/2022
I last blogged in April and wrote about the next generation of union organizing and the current  efforts by the NLRB’s General Counsel to overturn long standing Board precedent.  Increased efforts to organize Starbucks, Amazon and Apple cannot and should not be ignored. And lots of media attention is directed at the issue.  Often, however, the view is that it’s conscience shocking to believe some employees might NOT want to be in a union. ...
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“Back to the Salt Mine” Not Anti-Union Threat, Says Third Circuit

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
05/27/2022
On May 20, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit issued its decision in FDRLST Media, LLC, v. NLRB, 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 13664 (3d Cir. May 20, 2022), holding that a non-related party could pursue an unfair labor practice (ULP) claim against the right-leaning online magazine The Federalist. The court also held, however, that no ULP was committed by the editor’s tweet about sending employees back to the “salt mine.”  In...
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More (Possible) Labor Pains

Darrell VanDeusen
Darrell VanDeusen
04/13/2022
Earlier this week I wrote about some developments in labor law.  I thought my second blog would be about something completely different.  But wait, there’s more. On Wednesday, April 12, the NLRB’s General Counsel, Jennifer Abruzzo, through her deputy GC, filed a brief to the Board that claims a former NLRB associate general counsel – in 1969 – “misrepresented controlling board law” in an argument before the U.S. Supreme Court,...
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