By Edwin S. Hopson
On March 21, 2013, the ranking member of the Senate Health, Education Labor and Pensions Committee, Lamar Alexander (R-TN), offered an amendment that would defund the enforcement of any decisions or regulations made by the National Labor Relations Board, citing the decision in Noel Canning by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the ...
By Edwin S. Hopson
On March 18, 2013, President Obama announced the nomination of Thomas Perez to serve as the next U.S. Secretary of Labor. Perez is a former Maryland Secretary of Labor and is currently serving as U.S. Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. Perez also served as head of the Office of Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Health ...
By Edwin S. Hopson
On March 12, 2013, the National Labor Relations Board announced that it had decided not to seek en banc rehearing in Noel Canning v. NLRB, a case in which the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit held that President Obama’s January 4, 2012 recess appointments of three members to the Board were invalid. Instead, the ...
By Edwin S. Hopson
Acting U.S. Secretary of Labor, Seth D. Harris, announced on March 8, 2013, that the economy added 236,000 new non-farm payroll jobs in February. Harris also reported that the unemployment rate had dipped to 7.7%--the lowest level since December 2008.
Harris claimed that in the last 3 years, the private sector added a total of ...
By John W. Woodard, Jr.
A local union’s federal lawsuit challenging Indiana’s new “right to work” law on constitutional grounds has been dismissed. In 2012, Indiana became the 23rd state to enact "right to work” legislation prohibiting “union security clauses” in union contracts with employers. Many argue that union security ...
By Edwin S. Hopson
In late February, the AFL-CIO Executive Council called on Senate Democrats to empower the National Labor Relations Board or else. "Now we demand that the president name all five people to fill those NLRB positions and that the Senate vote promptly,” according to Communications Workers of America union (CWA) President Larry ...
By Douglas L. McSwain
The interim Final Insurance Market Reform Rule under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) came out this past week, and included the employment non-discrimination/whistleblower protection provisions. This rule could very well become one of the most litigious employment law developments in some time. Employers are prohibited ...
By Edwin S. Hopson
Recently, the President re-nominated Sharon Block and Richard Griffin, both Democrats, to be Members of the National Labor Relations Board. Last month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled in Noel Canning v. NLRB that their recess appointments to the NLRB made in early January 2012, were not valid. The ...
By Edwin S. Hopson
On January 25, 2013, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued its decision in Noel Canning v. National Labor Relations Board, et al., No. 12-1115, holding that the order issued by the NLRB in the case was invalid in that the NLRB lacked a quorum of properly appointed members. On January 4, 2012 ...
By Edwin S. Hopson
In the wake of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals January 25, 2013 ruling in Noel Canning v. National Labor Relations Board, the NLRB’s Chairman issued the following statement on the same date which is posted on the Board’s website:
"The Board respectfully disagrees with today’s decision and believes that the ...