In this podcast episode, Ashley Cano, Partner in the Labor and Employment department of Seyfarth’s Chicago office, and John Phillips, Senior Associate in the firm’s Houston office, discuss the National Labor Relations Board’s changing view of the scope of protected concerted activity. With a new Acting General Counsel in charge at the NLRB, the Board is already beginning to shift its focus and promote a more worker- and union-friendly agenda. On March 31st,…

By Molly Gabel Seyfarth Synopsis: The National Mediation Board’s new decertification rule survived the first round of legal challenge. In 2019, the NMB issued a final rule providing a direct decertification process under the Railway Labor Act and a two-year period of repose under which the NMB cannot conduct an election following a decertification. The Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO and its member unions challenged the rule through a lawsuit against the NMB in the United…

By: Jennifer L. Mora and Jeffrey A. Berman As the National Labor Relations Board transitions from a Republican-majority to a Democrat-majority, the Board’s sole Democrat, Chairman McFerran, continues to provide a window into what the future is likely to look like under a Biden Board. This blog is another in a multi-part series discussing how Chairman McFerran’s dissents may become the law once President Biden appoints new Board members and the Democrats are in the…

Wednesday, March 24, 2021 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. Eastern 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. Central 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Mountain 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. Pacific One part of the recently passed $1.9 trillion “American Rescue Plan” is the “Butch Lewis Emergency Pension Plan Relief Act of 2021” (“Butch Lewis”).  Butch Lewis is the long awaited law designed to provide underfunded multiemployer pension plans with sufficient monies to pay for all accrued benefits…

Wednesday, March 24, 2021 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. Eastern 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. Central 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Mountain 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. Pacific One part of the recently passed $1.9 trillion “American Rescue Plan” is the “Butch Lewis Emergency Pension Plan Relief Act of 2021” (“Butch Lewis”).  Butch Lewis is the long awaited law designed to provide underfunded multiemployer pension plans with sufficient monies to pay for all accrued benefits…

By Jennifer L. Mora and Jeffrey A. Berman Seyfarth Synopsis: When a new President is about to shift the balance of power at the National Labor Relations Board, a Board dissent can foreshadow how the newly constituted Board will consider a similar issue. Such is the case in Stericycle, Inc., a February 17, 2021 divided Board decision addressing unilateral implementation of an employee handbook. In Stericycle, the employer had a collective bargaining relationship with…

By Ronald Kramer, Seong Kim, and James Hlawek Seyfarth Synopsis:  On Monday, the Senate Parliamentarian ruled that the multiemployer pension plan bailout provisions in the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan (a.k.a. the latest COVID-19 relief bill) would be eligible for a simple majority vote in the Senate as part of the budget reconciliation process, and thus will remain as part of the relief bill likely to become law shortly. On Monday, March 1st,…