On May 1st the NLRB issued, through its Office of Public Affairs, notice that it was inviting briefs on employees use of electronic communication systems, i.e., e-mail, in light of the recent decision by the Administrative Law Judge in Purple Communications, Inc. in which the ALJ dismissed allegations that the employer violated the NLRA…

The Regional Director for the Chicago office of the NLRB issued a decision this week finding that football players receiving scholarships at Northwestern University constituted an appropriate unit for purposes of collective bargaining under the NLRA.  From my perspective, the decision is flawed in many ways, most importantly from a public policy standpoint.  But even…

On March 12, 2014 a three-person panel of the NLRB issued a rather scathing decision with respect to the named employer’s attempted enforcement of their e-mail policy.  The employer involved, the California Institute of Technology Jet Propulsion Laboratory, employed approximately 5000 individuals at the site in question.  As a result of new federal regulations, per…

This month the NLRB adopted the Administrative Law Judges’ decision in Amalgamated Transit Union, Local Union No. 1433, AFL-CIO in which the Judge found no violations when, on the Union’s Facebook page, a variety of different comments regarding the crossing of a picket line during a labor dispute were posted by union members.  In particular,…

The NLRB officially announced, earlier this month, that it was not going to seek Supreme Court review of two U.S. Court of Appeals’ decisions invalidating the NLRB’s Notice Posting Rule, which would require most private sector employers to post a notice of employee rights in the workplace.  The Board’s Office of Public Affairs issued a…

The Supreme Court this week heard oral arguments regarding the Mulhall case which was not your run-of-the-mill issue in the area of labor disputes.  In fact, the focus was just the opposite of a dispute: agreements whereby unions and employers agreed to terms under which a union would be able to organize an employer’s employees. …

A divided U.S. Senate confirmed President Obama’s nomination of Richard Griffin, Jr., to serve as the NLRB’s General Counsel, positioning the former union lawyer with the power to decide when to investigate and prosecute companies charged with unfair labor practices.

The Senate approved Griffin mainly along party lines by a vote of 55-44, highlighting the…