Protecting Employers Since 1985
It is becoming clear that union employees in the last year or so have high wage expectations. Contract settlements are becoming much more difficult to achieve. Here are some of the reasons for it. Covid is a big part of it. Employees will regularly say “we worked our butts off during Covid, risked our health,…
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Construction industry labor law is very different from regular labor law. The labor agreements are different, and there is often no negotiating by employers who are stuck with an area-wide, multi-employer contract. The organizing process is typically different. Usually there are not NLRB elections and unions will attempt to organize by putting pressure on the…
Read MoreThe newly appointed General Counsel, Jennifer Abruzzo, of the National Labor Relations Board has just given the business community a road map of her pro-union agenda. Ms. Abruzzo comes to the key General Counsel position after serving as an attorney for the Communication Workers of America. On August 12, 2021, Ms. Abruzzo issued a memorandum…
Read MoreHot off the presses! The NLRB just released the news that Peter Sung Ohr has been appointed General Counsel to replace Peter Robb. It’s clear that the Biden administration’s strategy is to deny the pro-business forces at the NLRB the opportunity to make continued changes during the last ten months of Peter Robb’s term. Peter…
Read MoreThe new Biden administration signaled an aggressive approach to changes at the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” and/or “Board”). On his first day in office, President Joe Biden made good on a threat to fire National Labor Relations Board General Counsel Peter Robb, who had rebuffed an earlier request to resign. Robb’s firing ends a…
Read MoreWe see the same fact pattern time after time. A construction company signed a union contract (or perhaps several union contracts) years ago to finish a job under threat of union pickets. The company assumed that the dormant contracts were a dead issue years later because they had not been used for many years. Perhaps…
Read MoreFirst, I want to say that we are here to help. COVID-19 has created some real challenges and never before seen issues. Here is some background as well as a few observations. National Labor Relations Board As of now, all NLRB offices are closed to the public. The NLRB is operational but most employees are…
Read MoreCOVID-19 is about the only subject being discussed at Wessels Sherman these days. Of course, there are some exceptions, but COVID-19 is the 800-pound gorilla! While most legal commentaries on COVID-19 focus on minutiae of legislation and regulations, for this commentary we are going to focus on practical information and solutions. And, we will do…
Read MoreWe are receiving phone calls with increasing regularity asking about a variety of issues generally described as refusals to work. Most frequently these scenarios involve talk, but sometimes outright threats to walk off the job. There are a whole host of fact patterns here which impact a legal analysis. Is there a union contract? Is…
Read MoreGovernor Pritzker’s Shelter in Place Order was announced Friday, March 20, 2020 at his press conference shortly after 3:00 pm. It was only later in the day on Friday that the full text was released. Here is an EXECUTIVE SUMMARY. The fundamental is that all individuals are to stay at home. The Order explains what…
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