For those keeping tabs at home, you might have noticed the abundance of labor law related posts the past four days. Today marks the fifth and final day of the defacto labor law week. Rounding out the week, we have a few articles which touch on some relevant labor law related updates.
As always, below are a couple articles that caught my eye this week.
NLRB Issues Election Protection Rule, Changing 3 Aspects of Representation Election Process & Procedures
The National Law Review has a concise summary of three changes the NLRB has made to its representation election process and procedures, set to take effect June 1st. The three changes include a change to the process in which a union can prevent employees from voting whether they want to have new union representation (representation election) or if they instead want to be represented by the incumbent union (decertification election); a change to how employers can voluntarily recognize a union rather than having employees vote to have a union represent them; and a change Section 9(a) recognition in the construction industry. A review of this article is well worth the time to get caught up on these changes set to take effect in a month’s time.
Petitions For Representation Elections Were Up This Year...& Then the Coronavirus Came Along
Robert Combs at Bloomberg Law wrote an article recently in which he noted that up until mid March, the number of petitions for representative elections filed with the NLRB were up. Way up, actually, to the tune of nearly 80 more petitions filed in 2020 then during the same timeframe last year. (Up until mid March there were 411 petitions filed compared to 324 during the same timeframe in 2019.) As well, the NLRB reported that it had only received 54 decertification petitions from January 1st through March 14th, marking the lowest number received in nearly 5 years. Although there has still been a year over year trend of decertification petitions, before the coronavirus situation threw things into flux, more certification petitions than decertification petitions had been received. How will things shake out now that elections are able to be held again? That remains to be seen.
Amazon Reportedly Using “Heat Maps” to Track Potential Unionization at Whole Foods Stores
This is an interesting story. Apparently Amazon (who owns Whole Foods) has implements “heat maps” to track which of its Whole Foods stores are at risk of unionization. The “heat maps” are said to rate each of the 510 Whole Foods stores based on the likelihood that its employees might form or join a union. The scores for each store are based upon a variety of factors including the “loyalty” of employees, turnover rates, racial diversity, proximity to a union office, and violations as recorded by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The scores are then apparently fed onto a heat map with red spots indicating a store that is at “risk”. Interesting, to say the least.
NLRB Charge Against Fuyao Glass America Dismissed
Readers might have seen the documentary on Netflix entitled American Factory, which chronicles a Chinese company, Fuyao, opening up a glass manufacturing plant in Ohio. The documentary follows Fuyao Glass America, the American arm of Fuyao, and some of the struggles the company had with its workforce. In one scene in particular, the documentary film crew filmed the current chief executive of Fuyao Glass America talking with Fuyao’s founder in 2016 or 2017 about a possible unionization at the plant. The translation (from Mandarin) appeared to show the founder being told that a few employees at the plant were terminated in order to stamp out their unionization efforts. (It is worth noting that there is some dispute over the translation and what was/was not said.) As Thomas Gnau at The Dayton Daily News writes, the NLRB dismissed a charge that had been filed in August of 2019 which accused the company of an unfair labor practice. Patricia Naschand, NLRB Ohio Acting Regional Director, dismissed the charge on the grounds that it was untimely. (The charge was filed more than 2 years after the alleged statement occurred and more than 6 months after employees were put on notice of the statements, after the documentary aired at a festival.)
CORT Furniture Rental Employees Allege Terminations Were Effort to Stamp Out Unionization
On the topic of companies allegedly terminating employees to stop efforts to unionize, The New York Daily News has an article on allegations swirling around a CORT Furniture Rental Location in New Jersey. According to some employees, the company terminated them (approximately 10 - 15 positions) at the end of March not because of the coronavirus (as the company said that led to a slowdown in business which necessitated the need to let some employees go) but rather because the company was trying to prevent employees from unionizing. Leading up to the terminations, some warehouse workers were organizing with Teamsters Local 814. With similar allegations popping up around the country at a host of different businesses, I suspect these stories will be the norm for a while.
Amazon Reportedly Using “Heat Maps” to Track Potential Unionization at Whole Foods Stores
This is an interesting story. Apparently Amazon (who owns Whole Foods) has implements “heat maps” to track which of its Whole Foods stores are at risk of unionization. The “heat maps” are said to rate each of the 510 Whole Foods stores based on the likelihood that its employees might form or join a union. The scores for each store are based upon a variety of factors including the “loyalty” of employees, turnover rates, racial diversity, proximity to a union office, and violations as recorded by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The scores are then apparently fed onto a heat map with red spots indicating a store that is at “risk”. Interesting, to say the least.
NLRB Charge Against Fuyao Glass America Dismissed
Readers might have seen the documentary on Netflix entitled American Factory, which chronicles a Chinese company, Fuyao, opening up a glass manufacturing plant in Ohio. The documentary follows Fuyao Glass America, the American arm of Fuyao, and some of the struggles the company had with its workforce. In one scene in particular, the documentary film crew filmed the current chief executive of Fuyao Glass America talking with Fuyao’s founder in 2016 or 2017 about a possible unionization at the plant. The translation (from Mandarin) appeared to show the founder being told that a few employees at the plant were terminated in order to stamp out their unionization efforts. (It is worth noting that there is some dispute over the translation and what was/was not said.) As Thomas Gnau at The Dayton Daily News writes, the NLRB dismissed a charge that had been filed in August of 2019 which accused the company of an unfair labor practice. Patricia Naschand, NLRB Ohio Acting Regional Director, dismissed the charge on the grounds that it was untimely. (The charge was filed more than 2 years after the alleged statement occurred and more than 6 months after employees were put on notice of the statements, after the documentary aired at a festival.)
CORT Furniture Rental Employees Allege Terminations Were Effort to Stamp Out Unionization
On the topic of companies allegedly terminating employees to stop efforts to unionize, The New York Daily News has an article on allegations swirling around a CORT Furniture Rental Location in New Jersey. According to some employees, the company terminated them (approximately 10 - 15 positions) at the end of March not because of the coronavirus (as the company said that led to a slowdown in business which necessitated the need to let some employees go) but rather because the company was trying to prevent employees from unionizing. Leading up to the terminations, some warehouse workers were organizing with Teamsters Local 814. With similar allegations popping up around the country at a host of different businesses, I suspect these stories will be the norm for a while.
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