By: Jeffrey A. Berman, Mary Kay Klimesh, & Bryan R. Bienias
Last week the National Labor Relations Board decided to reconsider whether graduate teaching assistants at private universities should be treated as employees under the National Labor Relations Act. The case, The New School, Case No. 02-RC-143009, involves a UAW petition to…
By: Bradford L. Livingston, Esq.
On the eve of a new college football season, the referees at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) got it right on instant replay: they called off the game. In a ruling earlier today, the NLRB’s five Members unanimously declined to assert jurisdiction over Northwestern’s scholarship football athletes. […
For decades prior to 2000, the National Labor Relations Board (Board) consistently found that a bargaining unit was inappropriate when the union sought a unit consisting of employees of one employer together with employees of a separate employer, unless all of the employers involved consented. For example, a proposed unit…
By: Kenneth R. Dolin, Esq.
The Board recently reversed a Regional Director and found that four disputed home-based delivery and install employees did not belong in the contractual unit at the employer’s Grand Rapids, Michigan facility. It reasoned that the four disputed employees did not work at the Grand Rapids facility, were not covered…
By: Kenneth R. Dolin
Nestle Dreyer’s Ice Cream Co. v. NLRB is a case pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit that very well may determine the viability of the Board’s Specialty Healthcare standard for ascertaining the appropriateness of bargaining units. The Sixth Circuit previously upheld the Specialty Healthcare standard in…
By: Jeffrey A. Berman, Esq.
On December 19, 2014, the Board released Pacific Lutheran University, 361 NLRB No. 157 (2014) (Pacific Lutheran Board Decision), a decision that will have significant impact on two key issues: (i) when the Board can assert jurisdiction over religious schools; and (ii) the analysis to be applied…
On July 28, 2104, the NLRB unanimously rejected a petitioned-for bargaining unit comprising shoe sales associates in two different departments at Bergdorf Goodman’s Manhattan retail store. See The Neiman Marcus Group, Inc. d/b/a Bergdorf Goodman, 361 NLRB No. 11. The Board found that the employees of the petitioned-for unit…
In its recent 3-1 decision in Macy’s Inc., 361 NLRB No. 4 (2014), the National Labor Relations Board fueled employer concerns about fragmented micro-units in the retail industry. There, the Board held that a bargaining unit of 41 Macy’s nonsupervisory cosmetics and fragrance (“C+F”) salespersons was an
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By: Bradford L. Livingston, Esq.
In previous posts about possible unionization by Northwestern University’s scholarship football players, I likened the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) to referees who had committed a false start penalty and showed how the union’s game wasn’t just against Northwestern. This time – in a gridiron battle of acronyms worthy…
By: Bradford L. Livingston, Esq.
After last week’s post “College Football Unions: Throw the Flag for a False Start,” several readers asked what might happen if the NLRB is eventually upheld in finding that Northwestern University’s scholarship football players are “employees” under Section 2(3) of the National Labor Relations Act and therefore…
