The Seventh Circuit recently ruled that a municipality’s nondiscriminatory ban of all private signs from the public roads and right-a-ways could be used to take down Scabby the Rat.  Scabby is a giant, inflatable balloon that is available in sizes 6 to 25 feet tall.  (The website the court cited in its opinion is here, for the curious!)  Unions have historically used Scabby (or other inflatables) to draw attention to labor disputes by posting…

The Trump NLRB continues to revisit, and overturn, Obama-era decisions.  Late last week, in SuperShuttle DFW, Inc., the NLRB revisited the test for determining when a worker is an independent contractor, and in the process overruled the Obama NLRB’s decision in FedEx Home Delivery. First, however, a little background information.  As we have previously discussed, employees may join unions; independent contractors may not.  Thus, whether a worker is an employee or an independent…

In 2016, in Columbia University, the NLRB held that students at private institutions have a right to organize. The 3-1 decision overruled a 2004 decision in Brown University, which found that graduate assistants were not employees and thus did not have a statutory right to unionize. Since the Columbia University decision, the NLRB’s makeup has shifted — and it is uncertain whether the NLRB under the Trump Administration would still side with student workers. In…

The NLRB’s rulemaking on the joint employer issue has again been delayed.  Earlier this month, the AFL-CIO filed a memorandum (pdf) alleging that business groups secretly had “extensive input” on the proposed rule.  The AFL-CIO requested a 30-day extension of the time to submit comments on the proposed rule. On Monday, the NLRB announced that it was pushing back the deadline for submitting comments.  Commenters now have until mid-January 2019 to submit comments on the…

On Monday, the NLRB vacated its decision in Hy-Brand Industry Contractors.  As we discussed on this blog in December, the Hy-Brand decision adopted a more demanding test for determining when multiple employers are considered joint employers. Monday’s decision comes on the heels of a report from the NLRB’s Office of the Inspector General (“OIG”). The OIG is an independent office within the agency whose job it is to “to prevent and detect fraud, waste,…

Deducting paid time off (“PTO”) from employees for time spent on strike without their permission violates the NLRA, according to a memorandum from the NLRB’s Division of Advice. The memorandum, authored in 2016, was released earlier this month. A company that operates ground handling and terminal services for several airlines in Philadelphia became embroiled in a union organizing drive. Apparently in connection with the union’s ongoing efforts, it organized several one-day strikes against the employer. …

The 2014 Election Rule is here to stay— at least for the next two months.  On Friday, the NLRB extended the time for filing responses to the Request for Information until March 19, 2018. As we previously reported, the 2014 Election Rule, also known as the “ambush” or “quickie” election rule, speeds up the representation election procedure and allows union votes to occur more quickly than in previous years.  The Request for Information asks…