• The HR Specialist - Print Newsletter
  • HR Specialist: Employment Law
  • The HR Weekly

Labor Relations / Unions

Smithfield lawsuit against UFCW gets green light

03/01/2008
A federal judge has given the go-ahead to Smithfield Foods’ racketeering lawsuit against the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), but cautioned Smithfield that to succeed, it will have to specifically allege how the union will profit from its actions …

Having dispute in ‘Grievance’ does not stop lawsuit deadline

02/01/2008

All employers with a unionized work force, take note: Just because someone has an age discrimination claim awaiting resolution under your collective bargaining agreement’s grievance procedures doesn’t mean the employee can’t prepare to file a lawsuit. In fact, the employee may have no choice but to go forward …

Navistar weathers UAW strike

02/01/2008

A seven-week strike by the United Auto Workers (UAW) union against truck and engine maker Navistar International, based in Warrenville, ended in December …

Public employees may have right to run web site critical of employer

02/01/2008

The Michigan Employment Relations Commission (MERC) has taken the position that, like the federal National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), it can order an employee to be reinstated if a public employer punished him for speaking publicly about workplace issues …

State employees’ payroll deductions to fund PACs

02/01/2008

The Michigan Civil Service Commission voted 3-1 in December to allow state workers to have political donations deducted from their paychecks, despite warnings from the attorney general’s office that the commission lacks the authority to grant that right …

NLRB: You can ban union talk in employees’ e-mail

02/01/2008

The National Labor Relations Board dealt a big defeat to unions recently by ruling that employers can ban their employees from using company e-mail for union-related business …

Shots for unionized med workers subject to bargaining

02/01/2008

Lately, the Centers for Disease Control regularly warns about the danger of the next super bug or pandemic flu outbreak. That’s one reason it’s no surprise that health care facilities want to inoculate staff against contagious illnesses. But in a union environment, it may not be enough to simply order employees to get shots …

California Supreme Court grants new free-Speech power to unions and customers

02/01/2008

The California Supreme Court has ruled that unions and their supporters generally are free to urge customers shopping in private malls to boycott retailers at that mall. The ruling builds on earlier decisions that held that free-speech rights granted to California citizens in the state constitution are broader than those in the U.S. Constitution …

No employee right to use company e-Mail for union organizing

02/01/2008

The National Labor Relations Board has concluded that employers are free to forbid employee use of their systems for “nonjob-related solicitations.” The long-awaited decision says that an employer has the right to restrict use of its e-mail system based on its property interest in the computer equipment …

Union setback as court finds Smithfield didn’t abuse workers

02/01/2008

A federal appeals court has overturned a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) decision and ruled that security personnel at the Tar Heel plant of Smithfield Foods did not mistreat employees who worked for a cleaning contractor during a November 2003 protest …