Labor & Employment Law: Vermont and Federal Legislative Update
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB or the Board) issued a decision on September 29, 2022, in Starbucks Corporation, 371 NLRB No. 154 (2022), updating the considerations that guide regional directors when deciding...more
1. The National Labor Relations Board modified its test for determining if COVID-19-related conditions warrant mail ballot union elections, potentially signaling a return to mostly in-person votes. Starbucks Corp., 371 NLRB...more
The federal contractor vaccine requirement is back in the news. As T. Scott Kelly and Emily Halliday discussed, in late August 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit narrowed the coverage of a previously...more
It has been almost two years since the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued its decision in Aspirus Keweenaw in 2020, setting forth the standards that Regional Directors use to determine the efficacy of...more
A significant change to the manner in which representation elections have been conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic is the increased frequency of mail-ballot elections – whereas, previously, such elections were extremely...more
Yesterday, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB or Board) issued a decision realigning guidance on when a union election should occur by mail. Going forward, the new standard will make it less likely that union elections...more
Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, unions and employers alike have had to adjust to a “new normal” of mail ballot NLRB elections. Under normal circumstances, the NLRB’s preferred and standard method for...more
On June 25, 2021, the National Labor Relations Board (Board) decided in College Bound Dorchester, Inc. and Service Employees International Union Local 888, Case No. 01-RC-261667 (2021), that an employer’s challenge to a...more
On June 9, 2021, in Professional Transportation, Inc., 370 NLRB No. 132 (2021), the National Labor Relations Board held that the offer of Local 1077 of the United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers to handle or collect an...more
In a very recent case, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or “Board”) confronted the issue of whether a party engages in objectionable conduct if, during a union election campaign, it engages in mail-ballot...more
On June 9, 2021, the National Labor Relations Board held that a party’s solicitation of one or more mail ballots constitutes objectionable election conduct that may warrant setting aside an election. Professional...more
On June 9, 2021, in Professional Transportation Inc., the National Labor Relations Board held that a party’s offer to collect an employee’s mail ballot constitutes misconduct that may serve as the basis to set aside the...more
Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, mail-ballot elections—rather than manual, in-person elections, have been mandatory for most NLRB representation elections. The NLRB’s recent ruling, on June 9, 2021, in Professional...more
Though the National Labor Relations Board has established a pathway for holding in-person union elections, mail-ballot elections continue to be the norm in many Regions across the country. Of course, the more mail-ballot...more
Union Organizers Weigh In On What Ails Unions- Union membership in the United States has dropped to about 6.5% of private sector workers, after peaking at about 35% in the 1970s. Yet, Gallup polls show steadily increasing...more
1. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) provided guidance on the propriety of mail or manual ballot elections. Aspirus Keweenaw, 370 NLRB No. 45 (Nov. 9, 2020). In this case, the NLRB set forth the considerations...more
Elections for union representation have long been conducted in-person and with manual ballots. The National Labor Relations Board has a strong preference for in-person representation elections. However, the COVID-19...more
1. Thus far in 2020, unions prevailed in mail ballot elections at the same rate as in-person elections. According to an October 16 Bloomberg report, although voter participation was low, unions won seven out of 10 National...more
On April 1, 2020, after a temporary suspension of elections, the National Labor Relations Board announced that the processing of NLRB-conducted elections would resume again. Since about then, an unprecedented 90% of...more
Employers facing union representation elections have spent the pandemic trying to satisfy the National Labor Relations Board’s (Board) requirements to hold a manual, ballot box election, only to be refused in the vast...more
Background - As with many other facets of life, the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting how the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) handles representation cases. This week, in Aspirus Keweenaw & Michigan Nurses Ass’n,...more
As employers faced with a representation petition filed during the COVID-19 pandemic can attest, Regional Directors of the National Labor Relations Board have been incredibly reticent to hold in-person elections. Indeed,...more
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has established standards for its regional directors to weigh in on whether a representation election in which COVID-19 is a concern should be conducted by mail ballot or in-person...more
Downs Rachlin Martin labor and employment attorneys Amy Resnick and Andrea Wright highlight key Vermont and Federal legislative updates from 2020 that impact HR professionals. They walk through: Vermont minimum wage...more
The National Labor Relations Act allows workers to form unions and negotiate job terms and conditions with their employers. In normal circumstances, workers vote on whether to unionize via physical, in-person elections...more