The US Supreme Court issued its decision in Janus v AFSCME minutes ago ruling against the union in the public sector union fee case. This is a devastating body blow to organized labor. Click below to read the historic decision. Questions? Contact us.

Good news for business! On April 11, 2018, the US Senate confirmed Morgan Lewis & Bockius attorney John Ring to fill the National Labor Relations Board’s only remaining vacancy. With this confirmation, the NLRB will be at full strength with a 3-2 pro-business majority. This clears the way for the Trump administration appointees to resume…

According to a report just issued by Labor Relations Institute (LRI), unions won 71% of the representation elections conducted by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in 2017. This is consistent with union success rates in recent years and has resulted in over 54,000 newly organized union members last year. Meanwhile, unions lost approximately 4,000…

Nancy Joerg heard me talking on the phone with a client the other day. She liked the advice and asked me to write a commentary for our next Wessels Sherman Client Alert. The subject that I was discussing with a company president was one that doesn’t get much attention these days-union organizing. Union organizing in…

With the passage of another Labor Day, which was surprisingly quiet in regard to demonstrations and parades supporting organized labor, it is time to take a “quick look” across the landscape to see what the current status of organized labor truly is. While it is very clear that private sector Union Membership has again hit…

Over the Author’s lengthy career in practicing Labor and Employment Law (since November, 1972), I have had the privilege to represent a vast number of Employers in National Labor Relations Board matters (representation in Elections and Unfair Labor Practice Charges). Over that period of time, I have seen numerous vacillations with regard to Board Policy,…

As a number of Clients of the Firm would state, over the last ten (10) years, the author has been advising them to get out of/not participate in the Unions’ Multi-Employer Pension Funds. It has long been the opinion of the author that this is a quasi-Ponzi Scheme and was destined for failure from the…

For the last several years, my advice to union-free clients has been consistent. Even in the face of quickie NLRB elections, employers have the upper hand. Unions in the private sector today are a pale shadow of what they once were. Labor unions can be kept out of your organization with only modest preventative measures.…

Wisconsin’s Right-to-Work law, which became effective on March 11, 2015, prohibits employers and unions from entering into agreements which require membership in the union or the payment of dues as a condition of employment (“union security agreements”). The law also prohibits employers from deducting union dues from an employee’s wages unless the employee has signed…

In my introduction, I reprinted my commentary from 2005 on why private sector unions are in such a state of decline. Those factors are true today. Here is a list of the factors without my 2005 commentary: 1. Traditional base is disappearing 2. Management is far more sophisticated in countering the threat of unions 3.…