A landmark ruling challenges the Board’s authority to reshape labor law through case decisions rather than formal rulemaking.
NLRB’s Union Recognition Shortcut Blocked: Appeals Court Invalidates Cemex Framework as Improper Rulemaking
Unions Call Time Out on College Athletes, but Campus Organizing Plays On
The Dartmouth Men’s Basketball team, represented by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 560, requested to withdraw its petition to unionize on December 31, 2024. The petition, approved by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) the same day, ended the first successful college athlete unionization effort in the nation. The timing of the withdrawal was likely a strategic choice to avoid review of NLRB Regional Director Laura Sacks’s (Sacks) declaration that the athletes are employees under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) by the Board under the Trump Administration. Shortly after, on January 10, 2025, the National College Players Association formally requested to withdraw its pending unfair labor practice charge against the NCAA, Pac-12, and the University of Southern California, stating it “believes that it is best to provide adequate time for the college sports industry to transition into this new era before football and basketball players employee status is ruled upon.”
NLRB Provides Employees Extra Leeway to Use Offensive Language
On May 1, 2023, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) issued its decision in Lion Elastomers and United Steelworkers, making it more difficult for employers to discipline employees for outbursts and similar misconduct while employees are engaged in protected concerted activity under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (the “Act”).
NLRB May Soon Expand Jurisdiction Over Educational Institutions with Religious Affiliations
It is not often that the National Labor Relations Board (the “Board”) gives employers a heads-up before it makes broad, and often burdensome, changes, but a recently issued ALJ decision might be the exception to the rule. Earlier this year, an Administrative Law Judge issued a decision in Saint Leo University, Inc., 12-CA-275612 (2023) reinforcing how the National Labor Relations Act (the “Act”) is applied to religious educational institutions, however, the briefing in the case indicated how that application might change in the near future.
Union Support Reaches Generational High-Water Mark as Union Election Petitions Surge
According to a recent Gallup poll, 71 percent of Americans “approve of labor unions,” up three percentage points from 2021.
This represents a generational high-water mark for union support – the last time Gallup measured a higher union approval rating among the American public was 1959 when 73 Americans approved of labor unions. Prior to this year, union support had remained lower than 70% ever since union support dropped to 66 percent in 1967. The low-water mark was reached in 2009 when unions enjoyed only 48% support from the American public.
NLRB Mandates National Dress Code
On August 29, 2022, the NLRB issued its decision in Tesla, Inc., overruling precedent that allowed employers to enforce facially-neutral dress codes to prohibit wearing non-conforming attire, including union insignia and union logos. Now, employers must allow employees to wear union attire absent a showing of “special circumstances.”
NLRB Seeks to Reduce Company Speech About Unions
It has become increasingly apparent that the Biden Administration’s National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is aggressively pushing labor-friendly positions, like those seen under the Obama Administration.
Now it appears the NLRB’s General Counsel has taken aim at Section 8(c) of the National Labor Relations Act (the Act), and in so doing undermines 75 years of jurisprudence as “incorrectly concluded.”
On April 7, 2022, the NLRB announced the General Counsel’s desire to restrict employers’ ability to speak to their employees about unions, whether in so-called “captive audience” meetings, or whether “cornered by management while performing their job duties.” The General Counsel claims such meetings and conversations “inherently involve an unlawful threat that employees will be disciplined or suffer other reprisals if they exercise their protected right not to listen to such speech.”
Biden Executive Order Requires Project Labor Agreements on “Large-Scale Construction Projects”
On February 4, 2022, President Biden issued Executive Order 14063, requiring certain federal construction contractors and subcontractors “to negotiate or become party to a project labor agreement with one or more appropriate labor organizations.”
The EO’s Project Labor Agreement (PLA) requirement applies to “large-scale construction projects,” defined to include domestic federal construction projects “for
The Labor Law Insider: Employer Guidance – Reducing the Risk of a Successful Union Campaign
The Labor Law Insider continues the discussion in this podcast episode with Tom Godar, Tom O’Day, Terry Potter and Rufino Gaytán on actions employers should take proactively to deter unions from garnering employee support in the workplace. Shifting social issues in and outside the workplace along with significant public support for labor unions subject all
The Labor Law Insider: The Unions are Coming! The Unions are Coming!
The Labor Law Insider takes on the recharged union optimism and activity in this podcast episode. Moderator Tom Godar is joined by members of Husch Blackwell’s Labor Law team, Terry Potter, Tom O’Day, and Rufino Gaytán, to discuss the increase in public support for unions, recent changes in organizing activities by unions, and implications for