Labor

 

• Consultation regarding typical labor issues, such as accountability measures, affirmative action, apprenticeship training programs, attendance, benefits disputes, collective bargaining, conduct, discipline, discrimination, Division of Labor Standards Employment (DLSE) proceedings, downsizing, equal pay for equal work (pay equity), facility closure, failure to bargain in good faith, grievance arbitrations, hours and wages, injunctions, interest arbitration, involuntary worker transfers, labor contract arbitrations, management rights, mediations and negotiations, health insurance, layoff rights, leaves (such as injury or maternity, National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) hearings, management authority (such as to fill positions based on skills and qualifications), objections hearings and other types of proceedings, performance, plant closures, productivity, promotion, recall rights, representational hearings, restrictive covenants, restructuring, retirement plans and other benefits issues, secondment and compromise agreements, state labor boards, subcontracting, trade secrets, transfer of operations, unfair labor practice proceedings, union-organizing drives, union recognition, union trust fund audits, whistleblowers, works councils.

 

• Provided training for employers in remaining union-free and in managing their workforce effectively, if a collective bargaining agreement is in place.

 

• Strategic plans for employers when dealing with union-organizing drives, union elections and campaigns to remain union-free. 

 

• Consultation regarding labor issues involved with acquisitions, mergers and divestitures (collectively “M&A”) – such as drafting and reviewing labor and employment provisions of asset and stock purchase agreements and other M&A-related instruments and transfer of undertakings and protection of employment (TUPE) – joint-employer and alter-ego issues, the opening and closing of facilities, the buying and selling of unionized operations.

 

• Labor contract negotiations, collective bargaining negotiations and negotiations to accomplish project labor agreements and new or successor collective bargaining agreements.

 

• Consultation regarding Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and employee benefits issues associated with unionized employees and collective bargaining agreements, including pension plan withdrawal liability, severance and shutdown benefits, options for controlling active employee and retiree health care costs, negotiation of collective bargaining agreement terms relating to “contracting out”, multi-employer trust funds and shutdown issues.

 

• Strategic plans for dealing with labor dispute issues, such as economic strikes (seeking increased wages), handbilling, “labor peace” and “neutrality” agreements, mass-picketing, secondary boycotts, sympathy strikes (in which other unions at a facility go out on strike in support of a particular union that has called a strike for their own members, although the other unions may have no dispute with the employer), or for threatened strikes by one or more unions, or for retaliatory lockouts by aggrieved employers.

 

• Familiarity with the Railway Labor Act (RLA) and National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) dispute resolution procedures, for issues such as representation disputes, minor and major disputes, regulated transactions, labor protective conditions and matters involving Presidential Emergency Boards.

 

• Consultation regarding assessing whether a negotiation has stalled, avoiding successorship liability, general best-practices and areas of concern in labor contracts, and how to conduct successful negotiations in bankruptcy, restructuring and workout situations.

 

• Consultation regarding the attempts of a municipality and a state to enforce a “labor peace” agreement against a hospitality company.

 

• Consultation regarding union-organizing efforts by a national union, including conducting and responding to informational and corporate campaigns, neutrality agreements, supervisory training and general advice regarding unfair labor practice issues and general free speech rights.

 

• Consultation regarding the alleged wrongful termination of union members, including race discrimination allegations.

 

• Consultation for forcing an expedited union election to counteract a union-organizing campaign, in which the union was already picketing an employer in an effort to force the employer to recognize that union, where the expedited election resulted in the majority of employees voted not to join that union, and also resulted in filing an unfair labor practice charge on behalf of the employer with the NLRB against that union.

 

• Consultation regarding legal issues involved with consolidations, consultants, independent contractors, multiple rounds of rolling layoffs, outsourcing, planned reductions-in-force (RIFs) and transfers of operations to other facilities.

 

• Labor litigation experience involving Title VII allegations of discrimination, harassment, retaliation, state law tort claims, wrongful discharge, and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Family and Medical leave Act (FMLA) issues.

 

• Preventive labor law compliance consultation regarding issues impacting the workplace, such as permissible policies, practices and work rules.

 

• Consultation regarding proper and legal responses to pre-election union organizing efforts, such as bargaining unit accretion petitions, bargaining unit clarification petitions, card solicitation, decertification petitions, election rules, initial petitions for election, union-organizer access to property, employee access to union organizers, solicitation and distribution rules, and published guidelines concerning communications to employees.

 

• Strategic planning for the assessment and costing of labor contracts, development of bargaining strategy, establishing negotiations priorities, identifying requisites for impasse and implementation where bilateral agreements are not achievable, retiree health insurance, soft or hard pension freezes, structuring and locating new entities to maximize the advantages of labor laws and the applicability of joint employer and separate employer standards to contemplated forms of the business organization.

 

• Strategic planning for developing an environment of positive employee relations, as a preventative action to minimize the risk of potential future union organizing efforts.

 

• Vulnerability assessments, issue identification and resolution systems, program development and related management training regarding the likelihood of successful union-organizing efforts.

 

• Responses to Office of Federal Contracts Compliance Programs (OFCCP) compliance audits.

 

• Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) compliance.

 

• Experience with litigation involving hybrid cases under the Labor Management Relations Act (LMRA) Section 301 by union members, alleging failure by the union in its duty of fair representation (DFR).

 

• Development and implementation of corporate policies, helplines and hotlines relating to alcohol and drug substance abuse, anti-discrimination, anti-retaliation, internal investigations, sexual harassment, and other employee-counseling programs.

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   Last updated 200720_1837