Category: Union
A Bourbon Conundrum
The recent week-long strike at two Jim Beam facilities in Kentucky highlights a very interesting tension in the current workplace. Workers at the Boston and Clermont, Kentucky facilities overwhelmingly rejected the second contract proposal in two weeks, stepping out on strike on October 15, 2016. The second contract proposal...
NLRB: Grad Students at Private Schools Can Join Unions
Well, law school certainly felt like a job to your humble correspondent, and now it appears that the National Labor Relations Board agrees. Actually, it's not quite that simple; however, on Tuesday, the NLRB ruled that grad students working as teaching and research assistants at private universities (specifically Columbia...
Beer Distributor Appeals NLRB Finding as to Terminated Union Employee Who Reeked of Marijuana
Appellate briefing to the Second Circuit was completed earlier this week in Manhattan Beer Distributors LLC v. NLRB , a case in which the NLRB, in 2015, held that Manhattan Beer Distributors violated an employee's Weingarten rights when they terminated a distribution employee who "reeked" of marijuana after he...
4-4 Split at Supreme Court Allows Public Unions to Continue Collecting Agency Fees from Non-Members
On March 29, 2016, the Supreme Court issued a one sentence decision in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association : "The judgment is affirmed by an equally divided Court." Friedrichs is the second 4-4 decision of the term, a circumstance brought about by the passing of Justice Antonin Scalia in...
Teamsters: Keep MillerCoors Brewery Open!
Interesting intersection between the worlds of beer and labor law as Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa sent a letter to executives at SABMiller, Molson Coors and MillerCoors, urging them not to close the MillerCoors brewery in Eden, North Carolina. You can read the letter here , however, Hoffa...
Supreme Court Hears Oral Argument on Whether Agency Fees Paid to Public Sector Unions Constitute Compelled Speech in Violation of the First Amendment
On Monday, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in a case that could significantly inhibit public unions' abilities to collect dues from non-members. Since the Supreme Court's decision in Abood v. Detroit Board of Education in 1977, the courts have distinguished between fees charged by unions for representing public...
Tasty Tuesday: Arbitor Ends Cupcake War - Cupcake is Not an Intoxicating Beverage
Let us frost your day with a tasty treat—an arbitration decision out of Ohio, In re First Student, Inc. What is sweet about this arbitration you ask? Well cupcakes of course! Grievant was a former bus driver who was discharged after bringing cupcakes to work for a Halloween party...
Maine Labor Committee Rejects Right-to-Work Bill
Maine will not become the first state in the Northeast to pass a right-to-work law. Yesterday , law makers in Augusta on the Legislature's Labor Committee voted 7-6 to recommend that the full Legislature kill the bill. Right-to-work laws guarantee that employees who work in a unionized environment not...
President Obama Quickly Vetoes Congressional Attempt to Overturn NLRB “Quickie Election” Rule
Late last year we posted on the NLRB's finalized rules governing union election procedures which shortened the time period for employers to educate its workforces about the pros and cons of unionization. In response, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 232-186 to use the rarely exercised Congressional Review Act...
Teamsters “Liking” First Labor Contract for Facebook Drivers
Facebook Inc.'s shuttle bus drivers voted on Saturday, February 21, to ratify a labor contract that would increase hourly pay and benefits in their positions as well as address split-shift scheduling. Approximately 87 International Brotherhood of Teamsters members ratified the labor contract in a unanimous vote. The Agreement will...