Labor

  • January 15, 2025

    Trump Chooses Former DOL Official As Its Deputy Secretary

    President-elect Donald Trump said late Tuesday he plans to nominate former EEOC Commissioner and Department of Labor official Keith Sonderling for deputy labor secretary, the second-in-command at the DOL.

  • January 14, 2025

    GOP Objects To FTC Move To Protect Unionizing Gig Workers

    The Democratic-led Federal Trade Commission held its final meeting before President-elect Donald Trump takes office next week, moving to protect unionizing gig workers and examine investor holdings in the single-family-housing market, while the Republican waiting to take the helm said the body should stop announcing new plans.

  • January 14, 2025

    New Probe Opened Into UAW Misconduct Claims, Report Says

    A court-appointed monitor overseeing the United Auto Workers as part of a corruption case settlement said he launched a new investigation into misconduct claims against union officials, while noting the union has handed over requested documents.

  • January 14, 2025

    Pilot Can Seek Arbitration Without Union, Alaska Judge Rules

    The Railway Labor Act allows a commercial air pilot to independently pursue in arbitration his claim that a commercial air carrier fired him without just cause even after a union refuses to do so, an Alaska federal court ruled Tuesday.

  • January 14, 2025

    8th Circ. Says Arb. Board Must Decide Worker Vacation Issue

    A Missouri federal judge should have let an arbitration board decide whether a wrongfully fired railroad conductor qualified for paid vacation time after his reinstatement, the Eighth Circuit said Tuesday, reversing the judge's decision that the worker qualified and remanding the issue to the arbitration board.

  • January 14, 2025

    UFCW Units Fight NLRB Subcontract Clause Order At 9th Circ.

    United Food and Commercial Workers locals in California urged the Ninth Circuit to nix a National Labor Relations Board finding that a clause barring subcontracting in a labor contract with Ralphs Grocery Co. is unlawful, challenging the board's reference to a 1980s agency precedent about such provisions.

  • January 14, 2025

    FTC Issues Second Report On PBMs, Expanding Study Scope

    The Federal Trade Commission released a second "interim" report on pharmacy benefit managers and their effects on specialty drug prices Tuesday, claiming that the companies have driven up prices well over acquisition costs and continue to squeeze independent pharmacies out of the market through low reimbursement rates.

  • January 14, 2025

    New Hampshire Electric Co. Snubbed Union, NLRB Says

    A New Hampshire electric company refused to bargain with its employees' newly installed union as a way to challenge the union's certification in court, the National Labor Relations Board said, ruling the company violated federal labor law and ordering it to begin negotiations.

  • January 13, 2025

    Amazon, NLRB Attys Challenge Union Representation Ruling

    National Labor Relations Board prosecutors and Amazon have challenged a decision that the company tainted a union representation election at an Alabama warehouse, with prosecutors saying the NLRB judge should have identified more labor law violations and Amazon saying its opposition to the union campaign was legal.

  • January 13, 2025

    Boston Hotel Illegally Pulled Recognition, NLRB Judge Says

    A Boston hotel violated federal labor law by withdrawing recognition from a UNITE HERE affiliate, a National Labor Relations Board judge ruled Monday, saying the company did not prove that the union lost majority support.

  • January 13, 2025

    SEIU Rejoining AFL-CIO Gives Labor Boost Before Trump

    The Service Employees International Union's reunion with the AFL-CIO last week, experts said, will make it easier for the labor movement to coordinate as it enters what is expected to be a challenging time for unions and organizing.

  • January 13, 2025

    9th Circ. Won't Revive Salmon Processing Workers' OT Suit

    The Ninth Circuit declined to reinstate a lawsuit brought by former workers for a salmon processing company who accused it of failing to pay them overtime wages when it required them to be on call during the COVID-19 pandemic, finding the workers were not often called to return to work.

  • January 13, 2025

    Yellow Corp. Says Pension Funds Set Liability Too High

    Bankrupt trucking company Yellow Corp. told a Delaware bankruptcy judge on Monday that the administrators of its union pension funds have set the company's liability for ending its contributions too high.

  • January 13, 2025

    Owner Of Defunct NY Hotel Owes $420K, Judge Says

    A shuttered New York City hotel's owner must cough up more than $420,000 after the company failed to pay severance to engineers, a New York federal judge ruled Monday, finding the company didn't comply with an arbitration award incorporating a settlement for payment with a union.

  • January 13, 2025

    Co. Says Affiliates' Nonunion Labor Use Made It Union Target

    A maintenance company has sued a Heat & Frost Insulators & Allied Workers local in California federal court, accusing it of trying to freeze the company out of work at Northern California petroleum refineries because the company has corporate affiliates that use nonunion labor.

  • January 13, 2025

    College Athlete Group Asks To Drop NLRB Classification Case

    The advocacy group behind a National Labor Relations Board case seeking to establish that federal labor law covers certain college athletes has asked to withdraw the underlying claims, citing recent developments that could see players get a share of the money their play makes.

  • January 10, 2025

    Up Next At High Court: Porn ID Check & Retiree Discrimination

    The U.S. Supreme Court will return to the bench Monday for a full argument session, in which the justices will debate whether a Texas law requiring pornography websites to verify their visitors aren't minors violates the First Amendment and if retirees have the right to sue former employers for benefits discrimination. 

  • January 10, 2025

    Texas High Court Flips Course To Hear Boeing Back Pay Suit

    The Texas Supreme Court changed course Friday in a case over the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association's attempts to recover lost wages from The Boeing Co. after the Federal Aviation Administration grounded Boeing's 737 Max plane in 2019, granting a motion for rehearing.

  • January 10, 2025

    Starbucks Fired Union Activist In Wash., NLRB Judge Says

    Starbucks violated federal labor law by firing one of the lead organizers of a union drive at a store in Bellingham, Washington, a National Labor Relations Board judge ruled Friday, rejecting the company's argument that it fired the worker because she was late to work.

  • January 10, 2025

    Trump NLRB Return Leaves College Player Unions In Limbo

    The impending partisan shift at the National Labor Relations Board is expected to be a setback for the push to unionize college athletes but may not be its death knell, as pressure mounts on stakeholders of the lucrative college sports industry to resolve swirling questions about players' rights.

  • January 10, 2025

    Workers United Hits Starbucks With Dozens Of ULPs

    Starbucks illegally retaliated against baristas in multiple states who support unionization, Workers United alleged in dozens of unfair labor practice charges announced Friday, as the union seeks to pressure the company to agree on the terms of first labor contracts after negotiations came to a standstill last month.

  • January 10, 2025

    Stellantis Fights To Preserve Suit Over UAW's Strike Threat

    Stellantis' North American arm has asked a California federal judge to preserve its lawsuit accusing the United Auto Workers of making an unlawful strike threat, saying even though the union agreed to hold off on striking, the threat could still be a prosecutable contract violation.

  • January 10, 2025

    Cruise Contractors Drop $2.8M Union Fund Debt Row

    Two cruise ship contractors and a union pension fund have wrapped up their dispute over the contractors' $2.8 million debt to fund, indicating to a Louisiana federal judge Friday that they've settled the last outstanding issue in the case and are ready for the litigation to be dismissed.

  • January 10, 2025

    Outgoing DOL Head Talks Final Push, Biden's Worker Legacy

    With less than two weeks left overseeing the U.S. Department of Labor, Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su said she is proudest of fighting wage theft and her support for workers in collective bargaining, but regrets not having more time to fundamentally change the economy. Su spoke with Law360 about her tenure, her potential successor and her legacy.

  • January 10, 2025

    Calif. Forecast: 9th Circ. To Weigh Cal State 'Caste' Policy

    In the next week, attorneys should watch for Ninth Circuit oral arguments regarding whether a "caste" policy at the California State University system unlawfully targets Hindu employees and others. Here's a look at that case and other labor and employment matters on deck in the Golden State.

Expert Analysis

  • 3 Evolving Issues Shaping The College Sports Legal Playbook

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    Conference realignment will seem tame compared to the regulatory and policy developments likely to transform college sports in the near future, addressing questions surrounding the employment status of student-athletes, athlete compensation and transgender athletes, say attorneys at O'Melveny.

  • Employer Lessons After 2023's Successful Labor Strikes

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    Following recent historic strikes in the automotive, entertainment and health care industries, employers of all types can learn key insights about how unions may approach negotiations and strikes going forward, and nonunionized workplaces should anticipate a drive for increased union membership, say Lenny Feigel and Mark Neuberger at Foley & Lardner.

  • Employer Takeaways From 2nd Circ. Equal Pay Ruling

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    The Second Circuit 's recent decision in Eisenhauer v. Culinary Institute of America reversed a long-held understanding of the Equal Pay Act, ultimately making it easier for employers to defend against equal pay claims brought under federal law, but it is not a clear escape hatch for employers, say Thelma Akpan and Katelyn McCombs at Littler.

  • Employers Should Review Training Repayment Tactics

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    State and federal examination of employee training repayment agreements has intensified, and with the potential for this tool to soon be severely limited, employers should review their options, including pivoting to other retention strategies, says Aaron Vance at Barnes & Thornburg.

  • Extra NLRB Risks To Consider From Joint Employer Rule Edit

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    The National Labor Relations Board’s return to a broad definition of “joint employer” will expose companies — even those with only theoretical control of their outside consultants, contractors or franchise workers — to increased labor obligations and risks, further escalating their already expanding National Labor Relations Act liabilities, says William Kishman at Squire Patton.

  • AI At Work: Safety And NLRA Best Practices For Employers

    Excerpt from Practical Guidance
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    There are many possible legal ramifications associated with integrating artificial intelligence tools and solutions into workplaces, including unionized workplaces' employer obligations under the National Labor Relations Act, and health and safety issues concerning robots and AI, say attorneys at Proskauer.

  • How Employers Can Navigate NLRB's Pro-Employee Shift

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    The National Labor Relations Board's recent decisions and general counsel memos mark the strong beginning of a trend toward greater pro-employee protections, so employers should proactively engage in risk management by revisiting their handbook policies accordingly, say attorneys at Foley & Lardner.

  • Justices' Coming Fisheries Ruling May Foster NLRA Certainty

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    If the U.S. Supreme Court’s forthcoming decision in the Loper Bright v. Raimondi commercial fisheries' case overrules judicial deference to federal agencies' legal interpretations, it could carry over to the National Labor Relations Board's vacillating interpretations of the National Labor Relations Act, bringing a measure of predictability to the board’s administration of the law, says Corey Franklin at FordHarrison.

  • Aviation Watch: When Are Pilots Too Old To Fly?

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    A recent move by the U.S. House of Representatives to raise the mandatory retirement age for airline pilots from 65 to 67 has reignited a decades-long debate — but this issue is best addressed through collective bargaining between carriers and pilots, rather than through legislation, says Alan Hoffman, a retired attorney and aviation expert.

  • 2 NLRB Rulings On Unilateral Changes Are Bad News For Cos.

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    The National Labor Relations Board's recent rulings in Wendt and Tecnocap on unilateral changes to employment terms shift bargaining leverage away from companies, but certain considerations can help employers navigate a contractual hiatus and negotiations for a first union contract, says Henry Morris Jr. at ArentFox Schiff.

  • NY Co-Ops Must Avoid Pitfalls When Navigating Insurance

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    In light of skyrocketing premiums, tricky exclusions and dwindling options, New York cooperative corporations must carefully review potential contractors' insurance policies in order to secure full protection, as even seemingly minor contractor jobs can carry significant risk due to New York labor laws, says Eliot Zuckerman at Smith Gambrell.

  • What Employers Face As NLRB Protects More Solo Protests

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    Given the National Labor Relations Board’s recent decision in Miller Plastics to implement a broader standard for when it will protect individual protests, employers must be careful to not open themselves to unfair labor practice claims when disciplining employees with personal gripes, says Mohamed Barry at Fisher Phillips.

  • USW Ruling Highlights Successor Liability In Bankruptcy Sale

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    A Delaware federal court's recent decision in United Steelworkers v. Braeburn is important for potential asset purchasers in Section 363 bankruptcy sales as it found the purchaser was subject to obligations under the National Labor Relations Act notwithstanding language in the sale approval order transferring the debtor's assets free and clear of successor liability, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.

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