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Labor Relations / Unions

‘Just cause’ clause may stop firing after ‘last chance’

06/16/2014
If your union contract has a “just cause” for termination clause, get the union’s sign-off on a covered employee’s last chance agreement.

MTA rank and file sign contract

06/09/2014
A new contract grants unionized em­­ployees of New York City’s Metropolitan Transit Authority retroactive 1% raises for each of the past two years, which means most will receive one-time payments between $3,000 and $5,000.

Work stoppages fell as union membership declined

05/16/2014
Union membership has been falling for decades. In 1983, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that 17.7 million Americans carried a union card, about 20.1% of the working-age population. By last year, that percentage had dropped to 11.3%.

Union wants election at Lumber Bridge, N.C. poultry plant

04/30/2014
The union that represents employees at the Smithfield Foods plant in Tar Heel put on the feed bag in March to publicize efforts to organize employees at another company’s plant nearby. The goal: To build support for forcing a union election at the Mountainaire Farms poultry plant in Lumber Bridge.

Robeson County, N.C. rues teacher rankings under new law

04/30/2014
Hard on the heels of enactment of a new North Carolina law designed to eliminate tenure for public school teachers, the Robeson County Schools have reluctantly developed a point system to rank its teachers. No one, it seems, likes it—not school administrators and not teachers.

Consider letting employees unionize

04/23/2014
What’s an employer to do when it becomes clear employees want to vote on a union? One strategy may surprise you.

NLRB orders Anderson Lumber to negotiate with Teamsters

04/23/2014
The NLRB has ordered a Sacramento-area lumber company to restart contract negotiations with the union that represents its employees.

NLRB ready to back broad union organizing and collective activity

04/15/2014
For the first time in a decade, the NLRB is operating at full strength with five members and a confirmed General Counsel. The new board has a union-side majority and appears poised to expedite union organizing and support other collective activity across an increasingly broad spectrum of unionized and nonunionized workplaces.

Court blocks Teamsters’ bid to thwart company sale

04/14/2014
A court has ruled that the Teamsters union can’t scuttle the sale of Will Poultry, a Buffalo food distributor.

Board members may count as employees for Title VII suit

04/14/2014
Some small nonprofit organizations may think they don’t have to follow Title VII anti-discrimination rules because they only have one or two employees. They could be wrong if the board that manages the organization pays officers to attend meetings and generally holds them accountable for assignments and meetings.