When Cooper Tire & Rubber Company brought in replacement workers during a lockout, picketing strikers shouted a range of obscenities. The NLRB’s tolerance of obscenities in this context is well documented. But on this occasion, the comments were both obscene and racist. Comments directed at African-Americans included things like:
Warning: This post contains words that you used to not be able to say on TV.
The NLRB believes that vulgarity in connection with organizing campaigns is A-OK. As reported by Ben James at Law360 (subscription), the Board ruled that buttons and stickers that say “Cut the Crap” and “WTF” are not so offensive
In keeping with its clear pro-union agenda, late last year, the NLRB overruled its past precedent and held that employers who grant employees access to their email systems must now allow them to use the email system for Section 7 activity during nonworking time. Under the NLRA, Section 7-protected activity could include such things as
Every employer in California needs legal help at some point. The laws are too complex and the penalties too severe for employers to figure it all out on their own. Even the courts and government agencies can’t decide what some of these laws mean.
So the only
On December 15, 2014, in a split decision along party lines, the National Labor Relations Board (“the Board”) in Babcock & Wilcox Construction Co., Inc., overruled 30 year-old precedent that will needlessly undermine the utility and finality of arbitrations that concerned allegations of retaliation, interference and coercion with employees Section 7 rights. The Board did
We’ve been expressing concern about the National Labor Relations Board’s efforts to implement “quickie election” rules for over a year. Well, the rules are now in place and they’re part of a double-whammy for employers. First, the NLRB reversed course to decide that unions
The Los Angeles City Council voted last week to raise the minimum wage for Los Angeles area hotels to $15.37 per hour. The minimum wage will increase for hotels with 300 or more rooms in July 2015, and for hotels with 150 or more rooms in July 2016.
Of note, this minimum wage increase was
If you have unionized workers, you know that a union gets to request information that may be relevant to it its functions. This includes information potentially relevant in deciding to grieve a matter or to assisting with bargaining. Employers must respond to these requests in a timely fashion, even if they think the request is
In the quest to expand liability for real and imagined violations of employment laws, and to find more and deeper pockets, the latest target for plaintiffs’ lawyers and unions is the “joint employer.” The joint employment concept is a decades-old doctrine that applies where two companies are so intertwined and jointly involved with the
When the Supreme Court decided National Labor Relations Board v. Noel Canning on June 26, 2014, it invalidated the cases that the NLRB decided between January 4, 2012 and August 3, 2013. Here are some of the key cases affected by this opinion: