As construction continues and resumes during the COVID-19 pandemic, unionized construction employers must be mindful of the terms of their collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) when implementing workplace responses to...more
As more companies file for Chapter 11 amid the pandemic, expect to see more filings focus on reducing labor, legacy and environmental costs as key to a successful reorganization. This theme will come from debtor management...more
Collective bargaining agreements, including those that establish ERISA plans, should be interpreted according to ordinary principles of contract law, the U.S. Supreme Court has reaffirmed in a per curiam opinion. CNH...more
During their press conference on September 15, 2015, UAW President Dennis Williams and Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne appeared satisfied with the tentative agreement reached after months of bargaining. The two friends...more
While some people may have been on vacation at the end of August, the past few weeks have been extremely busy at the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or “Board”), with a series of decisions that will continue to make it...more
On August 27, 2015, the National Labor Relations Board, in Lincoln Lutheran of Racine, 362 NLRB No. 188, overturned 53 years of precedent, holding that, like most other terms and conditions of employment, an employer’s...more
With a few key strokes, the NLRB yesterday, in a 3-2 decision down party lines, wiped away years of precedent and re-wrote, or, in its words “refined,” the definition of a joint employer. In a ruling that will, if upheld...more
New Jersey’s Public Employee Relations Commission (“PERC” or the “Commission”) has weighed in on the issues of (1) when health insurance contributions become negotiable once the fourth tier of contributions under Chapter 78...more
The Third Circuit affirmed an arbitration award under the Labor Management Relations Act (“LMRA”) as the decision reached by the arbitrator comported with the collective bargaining agreement (“CBA”) between the parties....more
In This Issue: - Subcontracting Plans: How Implementing Best Practices Now Can Save You Headaches Down the Road - Recent ASBCA Decision Opens Door to New Approach for Contractors Negotiating Collective...more
In a decision watched closely by both employers and unions, a unanimous Supreme Court has resolved a thirty-plus year split among the circuit courts on the standards governing claims for retiree health-care benefits arising...more
On Monday, a unanimous United States Supreme Court issued its decision in M & G Polymers USA, LLC v. Tackett, Supreme Court Case No. 13-101, vacating and remanding the Sixth Circuit’s holding that a group of retirees was...more
On January 26, 2015, the Supreme Court of the United States resolved a long-standing dispute between the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals and the remainder of the federal judiciary in a case concerning the extent to which...more
In M&G Polymers USA, LLC v. Tackett, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned three decades of precedent by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, unanimously ruling that, when no specific provision in a...more
The Supreme Court has unanimously vacated a Sixth Circuit ruling that a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) vested retirees with lifetime medical benefits. M&G Polymers USA, LLC v. Tackett, No. 13-1010, 2015 U.S. LEXIS 759...more
On December 16, 2014, President Obama signed into law the $1.1 trillion Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act of 2015 (Appropriations Act), which includes some significant changes to the rules governing...more
Justice Clarence Thomas and a unanimous US Supreme Court decided to vacate a Sixth Circuit decision and hold that the federal courts cannot assume from silence in a union’s collective bargain agreement that retiree group...more
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Sixth Circuit’s reliance on retiree-friendly inferences set forth in UAW v. Yard-Man are incompatible with ordinary principles of contract interpretation and should not be used when...more
On January 26, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court decided M & G Polymers USA, LLC v. Tackett, No. 13-1010, holding that ordinary principles of contract law govern the interpretation of pension and insurance provisions of...more
Yesterday, in a unanimous decision, the U.S. Supreme Court held that courts must apply ordinary rules of contract interpretation when determining whether retiree healthcare benefits vest for life pursuant to the terms of a...more
In the past few years, thousands of companies have been targeted by opportunistic plaintiffs’ lawyers looking to make money from hyper-technical violations of state and federal wage and hour laws. Regardless of the...more
Earlier this month, the Supreme Court agreed to review the Sixth Circuit’s decision in Tackett v. M&G Polymers USA, LLC, 733 F.3d 589 (6th Cir. 2013). The Court will resolve an existing circuit split as to how courts...more
Companies acquiring unionized businesses are likely to face increased scrutiny from the National Labor Relations Board (“Board”). On May 9, 2014, NLRB General Counsel Richard F. Griffin, Jr., issued a memorandum instructing...more
Business owners and managers, elected public officials and administrators, and even sports teams' owners and general managers usually have more to lose than to gain by negotiating their organizations' union contracts....more
Patriot Coal became the third major debtor in the last year to modify benefits or reject a CBA under sections 1113 and 1114 of the Bankruptcy Code....more