Articles and Blogs

West Virginia joins 25 other states that have adopted “right to work” laws that prohibit private employers from requiring workers to pay union dues, fees and assessments as a condition of employment. Governor Earl Ray Tomblin (D) initially vetoed the measure, but on February 12, 2016, the West Virginia legislature overrode the governor’s veto.... READ MORE

 Right to Work Becomes Law in Wisconsin Wisconsin, long known as a bastion for unions and the labor movement, has become the 25th Right to Work state after Governor Scott Walker signed Senate Bill No. 44 into law on March 9, 2015. Wisconsin’s new Right to Work law will prohibit employers from requiring employees to... READ MORE

The National Labor Relations Board has, for at least the past two years, been focusing on private employer policies that interfere with employee rights to engage in protected concerted activity for their mutual aid and protection.  Employer policies that prohibit talking about wages, hours and working conditions while at or away from work have... READ MORE

The NLRB Overrules 50 Years of Precedent Last month, the current NLRB once again left the labor relations world with its mouth agape when it decided that Dues Checkoff provisions will now survive the expiration of a collective bargaining agreement (“CBA”).  Nearly all CBAs have a provision that requires management to withhold from employee... READ MORE

Representative John Kline of Minnesota introduced the Workforce Democracy and Fairness Act last week in response to recent NLRB actions affecting employers.  One aspect of this Bill is the reversal of the NLRB’s Specialty Healthcare decision which altered the established standard for determining collective bargaining units in non-acute care health facilities.    READ MORE

In a 3-1 decision released yesterday, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) decided the Specialty Healthcare case favoring the ability of small units of employees to unionize.  Overruling the established Park Manor standard, the NLRB ruled that just the 53 CNAs at a nursing facility could organize as one collective bargaining unit.   READ MORE