In keeping with the momentum of her Office, National Labor Relations Board General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo issued a memorandum yesterday to all Regional Offices advising them to request that the Board exercise its broad discretion in fashioning remedies for workers impacted by unfair labor practices, indicating the General Counsel’s intent to impose more onerous penalties on employers for violations of federal labor law. Seeking Full Remedies GC Memorandum 21-06, (September 8, 2021). In her…

The recently-sworn in General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board, Jennifer Abruzzo, has had a busy month, setting the stage for a slate of new enforcement initiatives.  First, the GC issued Advice Memorandum 21-04 (discussed here last week), identifying numerous Board decisions that are all but certain to be reassessed once the full complement of five Board members is seated in the coming weeks.  The GC’s memo also highlighted expected new initiatives in certain…

The NLRB’s “contract coverage” standard for determining whether a collective bargaining agreement privileges an employer to unilaterally change terms and conditions of employment received support last week from a federal court of appeals, further solidifying the legitimacy of the relatively new standard at a time when the Board is undergoing a change in leadership and policy objectives. As announced last Thursday, the new General Counsel wants to revisit the Second Circuit-approved “contract coverage” standard,…

Less than a month after being sworn in as the new General Counsel of the NLRB, Jennifer Abruzzo defined a bold new direction for the Board’s enforcement priorities in a memo issued on August 12, 2021.  The memo, Mandatory Submissions to Advice GC Memorandum 21-04 (August 12, 2021), lays out subject matters that NLRB Regions must submit to the Office of the General Counsel for Advice prior to any decision.  Abruzzo’s memo makes clear…

A split Board concluded this week that a union did not engage in unlawful secondary activity under the NLRA when it stationed a 12-foot-tall inflatable rat—known all too well by employers as “Scabby the Rat”—and two 8-foot banners on the worksite of a neutral employer for the purpose of forcing the neutral employer to cease doing business with the primary employer with whom the union had a labor dispute. International Union of Operating Engineers, Local…

After being nominated by President Biden on February 17, 2021, Jennifer Abruzzo was sworn in as General Counsel of the NLRB yesterday by Chairman Lauren McFerran. Abruzzo will serve a four-year term as General Counsel, spearheading the agency’s investigation and prosecution of unfair labor practice cases and supervising the NLRB field offices in the processing of cases. As the NLRB noted in its official press release, this is the first time in the NLRB’s history…

As we reported here and here, there are several challenges to the authority of the Acting General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board, Peter Sung Ohr, given President Biden’s unprecedented move of terminating the sitting General Counsel, Peter Robb, in January 2021. One recent challenge to the Acting General Counsel’s authority was brought before the District Court of New Jersey in response to the Board’s petition for an injunction under Section 10(j) of…