Labor

  • May 13, 2026

    Med Spa Fired Worker For Wage Talk, NLRB Judge Told

    A Texas medical spa admitted to firing a worker because she'd discussed her pay with a co-worker, so it should be held liable for a National Labor Relations Act violation, agency prosecutors told a National Labor Relations Board administrative law judge after a hearing in a case against the spa.

  • May 13, 2026

    History Repeats As NLRB GC Moves To End Amazon Dispute

    A proposed deal to settle a National Labor Relations Board case asserting that Amazon jointly employs its contract drivers — but without an admission that the retail giant is their joint employer — echoes the controversial end of an Obama-era case seeking to establish that McDonald's employs its franchisees' workers.

  • May 13, 2026

    10th Circ. Considers Fire Chief's Immunity In Termination Suit

    A Colorado fire chief urged the Tenth Circuit Wednesday to find a lower court erred in denying him qualified immunity after terminating a union president, with the three-judge panel questioning the relationship between the union's collective bargaining agreement and the U.S. Constitution's requirements.

  • May 13, 2026

    Union, Federal Workers Sue USDA Over Religious Messaging

    The National Federation of Federal Employees and a group of federal workers are accusing the secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture of unlawfully imposing her religious views on a "captive audience" of agency employees through agency emails, according to a lawsuit filed in California federal court Wednesday.

  • May 13, 2026

    NLRB Fights 6th Circ.'s Take On Bargaining-Order Test Shift

    The Sixth Circuit should let the National Labor Relations Board keep using a 3-year-old legal test to decide when employers in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee must bargain with unions, the agency argued, asking the court to set aside a March decision to invalidate the test within its borders.

  • May 13, 2026

    10th Circ. Skeptical Of Union's Early Retirement Suit Appeal

    The Tenth Circuit appeared skeptical Wednesday of an appeal from a Boilermaker-Blacksmith pension plan and its trustees in a dispute over early retirement benefits, with multiple judges seeming reluctant to overturn a Kansas judge's interpretation that the plan allowed non-boilermaker work after retirement, regardless of the employer's contribution status.

  • May 13, 2026

    WestRock Made Illegal Health Plan Shift, NLRB Judge Says

    Packaging company WestRock violated federal labor law by changing a health insurance plan for employees without bargaining to a good faith impasse with a Teamsters local, a National Labor Relations Board judge found.

  • May 13, 2026

    GM Seeks To Put Brakes On Worker's FMLA, Bias Suit

    General Motors has urged a Tennessee federal court to dismiss a worker's disability discrimination and Family and Medical Leave Act suit, arguing the case is really a dispute over untimely leave paperwork rather than unlawful bias or retaliation.

  • May 13, 2026

    NY Says 'Unclean Hands' Snuff Out Pot Labor Peace Suit

    New York cannabis regulators are urging a federal court to throw out a dispensary's challenge to the requirement that cannabis operators sign labor peace agreements with unions, saying the courts can't help a company violate federal law.

  • May 13, 2026

    Air Traffic Controllers' OT Suit Can Stay In Court

    Air traffic controllers suing an aerospace company regarding overtime pay cannot be forced into arbitration because the company's collective bargaining agreement does not clearly waive workers' right to pursue Fair Labor Standards Act claims in federal court, an Oklahoma federal judge ruled.

  • May 12, 2026

    7th Circ. Judges Question NLRB's Union Reinstatement Bid

    Seventh Circuit judges weighing the National Labor Relations Board's bid for an injunction requiring a truck seller to recognize a union it has twice rebuked seemed skeptical Tuesday that the company's employees face irreparable harm without it.

  • May 12, 2026

    Amazon Union Says Venue Bid Was 'Forum Shopping'

    Amazon engaged in "blatant forum shopping" by challenging its New York City warehouse workers' unionization in the Fifth Circuit instead of the Second Circuit, a Teamsters unit has argued, asking the Fifth Circuit to reject this "gamesmanship" and transfer the case to the region where the unionization took place.

  • May 12, 2026

    Attys For Tufts Profs Didn't Blink In A Tenure Standoff

    When Jennifer Henricks and Kevin Peters first learned what was happening to tenured professors at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston a few years ago, they knew that what was at stake involved more than just a dispute over the terms of a contract.

  • May 12, 2026

    DC Circ. Doubts Cleaner's Process Complaints In NLRB Fight

    The D.C. Circuit appeared skeptical Tuesday that the National Labor Relations Board unfairly refused to admit certain evidence in a picketing dispute as it probed a cleaning contractor's attempt to escape a redone ruling that it punished workers over a protected protest more than a decade ago.

  • May 12, 2026

    Union Can't Join Legal Support Firm's NLRB Dispute

    A Texas federal judge rejected another attempt by the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America to intervene in a suit challenging removal protections for National Labor Relations Board members and administrative law judges, ruling Tuesday that the union fell short of proving it has a right to intervene.

  • May 12, 2026

    Ex-FCA Exec Must Answer GM Discovery In UAW Bribery Suit

    Former Fiat Chrysler labor executive Alphons Iacobelli, who was convicted for his role in a union bribery scheme, must answer hundreds of deposition questions in General Motors' sprawling civil suit, a Michigan appellate panel ruled.

  • May 12, 2026

    New Data Shows High Trust In Unions On AI, AFL-CIO Says

    Workers support imposing limits on artificial intelligence in the workplace by wide margins and trust unions more than either political party to push for policies on the technology that protect workers, according to a survey released Tuesday by the AFL-CIO.

  • May 12, 2026

    SEIU Local Fights University Of Chicago Prof's Grievance Suit

    A Service Employees International Union local properly processed a University of Chicago economics lecturer's challenge to the circumstances of his performance review, the union argued, asking an Illinois federal judge to toss the lecturer's claim that the union mishandled a pair of grievances he filed in 2024 and 2025.

  • May 12, 2026

    UPS Withheld Raises Over Union Vote, NLRB Judge Says

    UPS violated federal labor law by withholding pay raises from employees because they were slated to vote in upcoming union representation elections for a Teamsters local, a National Labor Relations Board judge has ruled.

  • May 11, 2026

    Trump Administration Must Face NAACP, Unions' Ed. Dept. Suit

    The Trump administration must continue facing claims that it overstepped its authority by attempting to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, with a Maryland federal judge saying a lawsuit brought by the NAACP and three unions is strong enough to survive the administration's dismissal motion.

  • May 11, 2026

    Fed. Circ. Scrutinizes Email Mishap In Decade-Old Wage Fight

    A Federal Circuit panel questioned Monday whether an email mishap that kept a U.S. Department of Defense employee from timely appealing his furlough was the employee's fault, after the U.S. Supreme Court gave him the green light to continue his 13-year-old fight.

  • May 11, 2026

    Union Coalition Urges Court to Nix FLRA Union Case Rule

    A coalition of federal worker unions has urged a Massachusetts federal court to set aside a final rule changing the Federal Labor Relations Authority's process for handling union representation cases, arguing the agency's decision to transfer power from its regional directors to its members was arbitrary and capricious.

  • May 11, 2026

    Management Attys Seeing Easier Path To NLRB Settlements

    Attorneys who represent employers say they have noticed a more lenient approach to settlements from the National Labor Relations Board's regional offices in the first year under the board's Republican leadership, a development that could lead to quicker resolutions of disputes as the board targets a lengthy case backlog.

  • May 11, 2026

    Auto Dealer Fired Worker Over Wage Talk, NLRB Judge Says

    An Illinois auto dealership violated the National Labor Relations Act by threatening and later firing a worker who talked about pay with another employee, a National Labor Relations Board judge held, saying the company's reason for firing the worker was pretextual.

  • May 11, 2026

    NLRB Majority Skeptical Of Boat Captains' Union Rights

    The National Labor Relations Board on Monday let stand a regional official's decision approving a representation petition by a group of boat captains even as the panel's Republican members hinted at interest in rethinking the Obama-era precedent that underlay the vote.

Expert Analysis

  • NYC Hotel Licensing Law's Costs May Outweigh Its Benefits

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    A hotel licensing bill recently approved by New York's City Council could lead to the loss of many nonunionized hotels that cannot afford to comply, says Stuart Saft at Holland & Knight.

  • How The Presidential Election Will Affect Workplace AI Regs

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    The U.S. has so far adopted a light-handed approach to regulating artificial intelligence in the labor and employment area, but the presidential election is unlikely to have as dramatic of an effect on AI regulations as it may on other labor and employment matters, say attorneys at Littler.

  • 8 Phrases Employers May Hear This Election Season

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    From sentiments about the First Amendment to questions about political paraphernalia, attorneys at Venable discuss several scenarios related to politics and voting that may arise in the workplace as election season comes to a head, and share guidance for handling each.

  • Inside FTC's Decision To Exit Key Merger Review Labor Memo

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    Despite the Federal Trade Commission's recent withdrawal from a multiagency memorandum of understanding to step up enforcement of labor issues in merger investigations, the antitrust agencies aren't likely to give up their labor market focus, say attorneys at Stinson.

  • Insights From Calif. Public Labor Board's Strike Rights Ruling

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    The California Public Employment Relations Board's recent rejection of a school district's claim that public employees have no right to conduct unfair labor practice strikes signals its interest in fortifying this central labor right — and warns employers to approach potentially protected behavior with caution, say attorneys at Atkinson Andelson.

  • Insurance Considerations For Cos. That May Face Strikes

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    The recent surge in major work stoppages in the U.S. highlights the growing importance of strike preparedness for businesses, which includes understanding strike insurance coverage options, say Chris D’Amour and Brooke Duncan at Adams and Reese.

  • It's Time To Sound The Alarm About Lost Labor Rights

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    In the Fifth Circuit, recent rulings from judges appointed by former President Donald Trump have dismantled workers’ core labor rights, a troubling trend that we cannot risk extending under another Trump administration, say Sharon Block and Raj Nayak at the Center for Labor and a Just Economy.

  • Insights On NLRB General Counsel's New 'Stay-Or-Pay' Memo

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    Attorneys at Davis Wright discuss the National Labor Relations Board general counsel's new memorandum on employer “stay-or-pay” policies and noncompete agreements, and explain key takeaways concerning the proposed financial remedies, prosecution framework and more.

  • Review Shipping Terms In Light Of These 3 Global Challenges

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    Given tensions in the Middle East, labor unrest at U.S. ports and the ongoing consequences of climate change, parties involved in maritime shipping must understand the relevant contract provisions and laws that may be implicated during supply chain disruptions in order to mitigate risks, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.

  • Politics In California Workplaces: What Employers Must Know

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    As the election looms, it is critical that California employers ensure their compliance with state laws providing robust protections for employees' political activity — including antidiscrimination laws, off-duty conduct laws, employee voting leave laws and more, say Bradford Kelley and Britney Torres at Littler.

  • Licensing And Protections For Voice Actors In The Age Of AI

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    While two recently enacted California laws and other recent state and federal legislation largely focus on protecting actors and musicians from the unauthorized use of their digital likenesses by generative artificial intelligence systems, the lesser-known community of professional voice actors also stands to benefit, says attorney Scott Mortman.

  • How Cos. Can Protect Supply Chains During The Port Strike

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    With dock workers at ports along the East and Gulf Coasts launching a strike that will likely cause severe supply chain disruptions, there are several steps exporters and importers can take to protect their businesses and mitigate increased costs, say attorneys at Thompson Hine.

  • How NLRB Memo Balances Schools' Labor, Privacy Concerns

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    Natale DiNatale at Robinson & Cole highlights the recent National Labor Relations Board advice memorandum that aims to help colleges reconcile competing obligations under the National Labor Relations Act and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act as university students flock toward unionization.

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