Between the close of business on Monday, January 27 and the following morning, President Trump discharged Jennifer Abruzzo from her duties as the general counsel for the National Labor Relations Board. Jessica Rutter was elevated from deputy general counsel to acting general counsel, the agency announced Tuesday.

It was anticipated that President Trump would remove Abruzzo in the manner President Biden terminated General Counsel Peter Robb on inauguration day. The President’s authority to remove the general counsel was upheld by the courts.

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.”

Given the variety and complexity of tasks associated with operations management, automated systems, including those utilizing artificial intelligence (AI), are increasingly deployed by businesses to improve overall efficiencies. As part of this effort, the use of AI or related automated systems to track and monitor production, including employee activities, is becoming widespread. A 2022 New York Times survey revealed that eight out of the 10 largest private U.S. employers track individual workers, many in real time, to assess their productivity. Any process that utilizes electronic devices capable of being connected via network technology suddenly becomes a trove of data points that can be used to monitor or improve the process—or the employees engaged in the process.

On October 7, 2024, the Office of the General Counsel issued a new memorandum, GC 25-01, expanding her prosecutorial agenda to remedy what she sees as the harmful effects of non-compete agreements and so-called “stay-or-pay” provisions that violate the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).

Last year, General Counsel Abruzzo issued memorandum GC Memo 23-08 stating her position that most non-compete agreements violate the NLRA because they tend to chill the exercise of Section 7 rights. And enforcement efforts against such agreements already underway, in particular a recent complaint issued by the GC. Recently, Region 22 issued a complaint against a building services contractor alleging the use of a no-poach agreement with its building clients violated the NLRA.

On June 11, 2024, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) affirmed that a union violated the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) by refusing to honor employees’ dues revocation requests following a successful deauthorization election. This rare but significant case, Governed United Security Professionals (Golden SVCS, LLC) and Sheldon N. Fraser, sheds light on the

On June 11, 2024, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued a very short but interesting decision in Governed United Security Professionals (Golden SVCS, LLC) and Sheldon N. Fraser, 373 NLRB No. 66 (June 11, 2024), affirming an administrative law judge’s (ALJ) finding that a union violated the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) when it refused to recognize employees’ dues revocation requests after a successful deauthorization election. Deauthorization elections are rare, and this decision is a ripe opportunity to review the specific facts of this case and remind employers about this arcane but significant procedural NLRA vehicle.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration plans to propose a new rule requiring employers to protect employees exposed to high temperatures at work. This federal government regulation is the first of its kind to provide protection from heat on the job. As the summer months arrive and heat records rise, employers would do well to examine OSHA’s proposal, and to understand the legal pitfalls facing employers under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) and the Labor Management Relations Act (LMRA), should employees complain about or walk off the job due to excessive heat in the workplace.

Employers in the United States received a significant win on March 8, 2024, when a federal court in Texas struck down the National Labor Relations Board’s (“Board”) expansive new “joint employer” rule, and upheld the existing (and more employer-friendly) 2020 rule. This rule would have expanded the circumstances under which two businesses could be designated as “joint employers,” and that could have significantly altered the legal landscape attendant to various workplace relationships.

Historically, the banking and finance industry has operated without much union interference. However, under the current guidance of Jennifer Abruzzo, General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board (“Board”), the tides are turning toward unionization in sectors previously not considered ripe for union organizing, including banking and finance.