Terry Potter

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A former field attorney with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), Terry views labor and employment cases from an insider’s perspective. He represents employers in collective bargaining, arbitrations and union avoidance techniques in a myriad of factual settings before the NLRB, National Mediation Board (NMB) and various state public labor relations boards.

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Firm/Organization: Husch Blackwell LLP
Blogs: Healthcare Law Insights, K-12 Legal Insights, Labor Relations Law Insider, Technology, Manufacturing & Transportation Industry Insider, The Contractor's Perspective

Latest Articles

Although the National Labor Relations Act was initially established to assist unions in organizing employees, its scope is much broader as it also protects employees’ rights to engage in “protected concerted activity.” The NLRB’s interpretation of what constitutes protected concerted activity has fluctuated over the years and, in particular, under the Obama administration it expanded significantly beyond its original scope.  In the Board’s recent decision of Alstate Maintenance, LLC the Board acknowledged a need to…
Those involved in the world of healthcare cannot escape the ongoing debate regarding staffing levels at healthcare facilities. Main Coast Memorial Hospital recently became an unwitting focal point for this discussion.  A number of internal communications between the nurses’ union and the Hospital over staffing resulted in a series of editorials in the local newspaper.  This in turn motivated a non-union employee to write a letter to the editor supporting the position of the union…
After years of stringent oversight, the National labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) is now loosening the reigns over workplace rules. The Office of the General Counsel of the NLRB recently issued an advice memo analyzing the social media policy of Kumho Tires, a Georgia-based tire manufacturer.  The General Counsel found the employer’s policy was facially lawful under the NLRB’s decision in The Boeing Company, 365 NLRB No. 154, and therefore the employer did not violate Section…
  For a number of years now, since the Missouri’s Supreme Court’s 2007 decision in Independence NEA v. Independence School District, there has been a great deal of confusion regarding the collective bargaining process in the State of Missouri for public employees.  All processes for those employees that were specifically excluded from the statutory procedures of the State Board of Mediation were subject to what various circuit courts believed to be the appropriate procedure in…
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Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit reversed and remanded a pro-employee Board decision concerning an employee who had been discharged based on the “disparaging content” of the testimony he made before state legislators. Back in October 2012, a bargaining unit employee of Oncor Electric Delivery Company (Bobby Reed) testified before a Texas senate committee that had been tasked with studying the impact of utilizing digital metering devices installed in customer…
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On December 14, 2017, the National Labor Relations Board (the “NLRB” or the “Board”) overruled Obama-era precedent involving two highly controversial decisions governing employee handbooks and joint employment standards. Earlier this year, President Trump appointed two Republicans to the five-member NLRB resulting in a 3-2 Republican majority for the first time in a decade.  As anticipated, the new “Trump Board” is beginning to dismantle a series of decisions that many believed to unfairly favor unions.…
The NLRB today announced it is requesting Information from interested parties regarding whether or not the 2014 Election Rules should be retained in any fashion or at all.  No doubt this is a heads up that these rules are going to have a short life span with the Agency.  This will be a very public battle and further information regarding the Board’s actions will be made available as they develop.…
It is not unusual on construction sites, where you have a variety of different employers present, that disputes erupt that impact the entire work site. Sometimes this can result in a number of different forms of employee protest and this decision by an Administrative Law Judge, which issued on December 8, 2017, provides a good framework for analyzing what is lawful versus unlawful conduct by an employer in responding to such activity.…
Peter Robb, the new General Counsel for the NLRB, issued GC Memo 18-02 on December 1, 2017 that puts the Regional Offices on notice that any “significant legal issues” are to be submitted to Advice. Significant legal issues are defined to “include cases over the last 8 years that overruled precedent and involved one or more dissents, cases involving issues that the Board has not decided, and any other cases that the Region believes will be…
In SouthCoast Hospital Group, Inc. the NLRB originally found that the Hospital violated 8(a)(1) and (3) of the Act by maintaining and enforcing a hiring/transfer policy (HR 4.06) in which the Hospital gave preference to unrepresented employees over represented employees when filling positions at its non-union facilities.  The Hospital, in responding to these allegations at hearing, stated that it was simply trying to make the playing field level, as under the collective bargaining agreement,…