Union Organizing & Labor Relations
Attorneys in Balch & Bingham’s Union Organizing & Labor Relations practice have developed full expertise in broad panoply of labor relations services for both organized and non-union employers. The list of services includes providing guidance and advice on how to respond to NLRB charges against an employer. We can quickly assemble an experienced and knowledgeable team to address any issue faced by an employer, large or small.
For unionized workforces, we have successfully negotiated and administered collective bargaining agreements (CBAs), handled grievances and arbitrations, developed strike and picket contingency plans and, from time to time, provided guidance regarding lawful decertification of a union. We have handled Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) cases before the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and have prosecuted and defended §301 contract cases in federal courts.
For non-union clients, we provide proactive legal and practical advice to avoid union organizing activities, including supervisor and employee training, development of workplace policies, and rapid response to signs of union activity such as authorization cards. We also keep our clients abreast of the NLRB’s ever-changing rules and enforcement efforts which often impact non-union employers. We have the experience and capability necessary to run successful programs in opposition to organizing campaigns and elections as well as providing guidance on how to handle NLRB charges against an employer.
Balch combines its decades of experience in core labor law areas with its firm-wide emphasis on creating and maintaining long-term client relationships. We focus on developing lasting relationships with clients based on trust, service, and a forward-thinking vision towards helping clients achieve their business goals. We recognize that understanding a business is essential to representing the interests and providing effective, practical and creative solutions. Providing the highest quality services in a prompt, attentive, and thoughtful manner is not a goal but a commitment to each client. For our labor and employment team, this means that our attorneys spend significant time working with leadership, human resources, labor relations and inside legal counsel to address short-term and long-term employee issues and develop thoughtful responses, policies and practices.
Related Practices
OUR CLIENTS
We represent private employers subject to NLRB jurisdiction across a wide spectrum of industries including manufacturing, food processing, construction, utilities and nuclear power, as well as services industries, including health care. Our attorneys have served clients requiring labor expertise nation-wide, providing prompt solutions to typical challenges and bet-the-ranch crises. We provide guidance to businesses planning to inherit organized workplaces through M&As or by winning federal contracts. Balch attorneys have the experience and depth to immediately deploy necessary resources for any client, whether large or small, to address any labor relations problem.
OUR EXPERIENCE
- Collective bargaining: Negotiated for client, ahead of schedule (the quickest in the company’s history) and under budget, a 4 year CBA with the USW. (2018)
- Breach of labor contract: Sued IUOE in federal court in Southern District of Texas for breach of contract, tortious breach of contract, and other claims arising from unions attempted exclusion of client’s union member employees from work in Louisiana and Texas and resultant damage to client’s business operations. We prevailed at trial and on appeal and successfully stopped union’s misconduct and forced union to pay client over $450,000. (2016)
- Neutrality agreement: Successfully invalidated client’s predecessor’s neutrality agreement under which union was trying to unionize workforce. Affirmed victory on appeal and also kept union from organizing workers. (2008)
- Labor arbitration: Successfully upheld discharge of power generation plant employee under CBA even though employee was on leave due to illness and had a doctor's note to remain off duty on the day in question. (2014)
- Labor arbitration: Won arbitration for major electrical equipment manufacturer against claims by union and nine grievants that CBA’s seniority preferences or assignment rights were violated when employer instead hired better qualified employees for the open jobs. (2014)
- Dismissal of ULP: Obtained dismissal of unfair labor practice charge against company based upon working assessment deductions. (2018)
- Successor obligations: Successfully represented successor employer on federal service contract in minimizing operational and payroll disruptions under successor obligations under Executive Order 13495 (the “Nondisplacement of Qualified Workers Under Service Contracts” rule). (2018)
- Closeout agreement: Negotiated closeout agreement with union on behalf of client to protect client in the sale of its business. (2017)
- Collective bargaining: Led negotiations with the Teamsters Union regarding the effects of the client’s sale of lumber mill to a purchaser that had not agreed to assume the collective bargaining agreement, and obtained waiver agreements for client from all union employees. (2018)
- Training: Proactive supervisory training to avoid union organizing activities. (periodically)