In the weeks surrounding Labor Day 2023, the National Labor Relations Board overturned precedent with decisions and rules significantly impacting both union and non-union employers. The result is labor laws encouraging both unionization and concerted employee actions affecting working conditions. Employers must review and assimilate these decisions before implementing new protocols and strategies in response.

The union membership rate among private sector workers fell to 6.0% in 2022, according to a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) news release. This is down from 6.1% in 2021 and continues the overall decline since private sector union membership peaked in the mid-1950s.

While organizing activity increased in 2022 (including workers at

1. Compensation in non-union jobs is outpacing compensation in union-represented jobs. A Bureau of Labor and Statistics report indicates the total wage and benefit costs for private-sector nonunionized employers was 3% higher than unionized employers for the 12-month period ending June 2022. Overall, total wage and benefit costs for private-industry firms increased 5.5%, but non-unionized

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) must reconsider its newest ruling on the rights of certain employees to access private property to engage in activity on behalf of a union, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has directed in an August 31, 2021, decision remanding NLRB v. Local 23, American Federation

A union’s use of Scabby the Rat (an inflatable rat “approximately 12 feet in height with red eyes, fangs, and claws”) and inflammatory banners targeting a neutral employer, without more, does not violate the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has ruled. Lippert Components Inc., 371 NLRB No. 8

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) dismissed a union’s push to organize a micro unit of 87 employees at a Nissan assembly plant in Tennessee based on the traditional community-of-interest standards for determining whether a unit is appropriate. Nissan North America, Inc., 10-RC-273024 (June 11, 2021).

The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers

The NLRB has the authority to order an employer to reopen a business it finds was closed for discriminatorily anti-union reasons. In RAV Truck & Trailer Repairs, Inc., 369 NLRB No. 36 (Mar. 3, 2020), the NLRB did just that. However, upon review, the D.C. Circuit held that it “cannot decipher how the Board

President Joe Biden was sworn into office on January 20, 2021. In just the first 100 days, the Biden Administration has begun its return to more labor-friendly policies, rules, and decisions, similar to those issued under the Obama Administration.

For example, on Day 1, immediately upon taking office, President Biden demanded that Trump-appointed National Labor

In an interesting turn foreshadowing a coming change in its leadership, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has withdrawn the rule it proposed in September 2019 to exclude student workers at private colleges and universities from coverage under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). The proposed rule would have excluded students whose studies included working