Advocates for Labor and Progressive Institutions
As reported in major media outlets, such as Buzzfeed, Rolling Stone, and The Huffington Post, the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia obtained mass criminal felony indictments against demonstrators who gathered to protest the January 20, 2017 inauguration of Donald J. Trump.
The Regional Director for Region 10 of the National Labor Relations Board rejected Boeing’s challenge to the appropriateness of a unit for a representation election involving Flight Readiness Technicians and Flight Readiness Technician Inspectors at Boeing’s South Carolina facility.
In the first Court of Appeals decision interpreting certain recent amendments to the federal Pension Protection Act, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed a ruling that candy maker Just Born II, Inc. (“Just Born”), is required to make pension contributions on behalf of newly hired employees at its Philadelphia manufacturing facility and that its defenses were properly dismissed.
Local Union No. 6 of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union of America won summary judgment against Just Born, Inc., a Bethlehem, Pennsylvania candy manufacturer that sued the Union claiming that a September 2016 strike violated the collective-bargaining agreement, which Just Born claimed had been orally extended.
In a matter of first impression, the District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee rejected an employer’s challenge to the interest rate applied by a multiemployer pension plan to overdue contributions and withdrawal liability payments.
The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit sustained the new silica standard promulgated by the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (“OSHA”) against a multipronged challenge by industry employers impacted by the standard.
In Elliott v. Board of School Trustees of Madison Consolidated Schools, No. 16-4168, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals held that an Indiana law that eliminated the right of tenured teachers to be retained over non-tenured teachers in the event of a reduction in force violated the Contract Clause of the United States Constitution. Bredhoff & Kaiser filed an amicus brief on behalf of labor economist Jesse Rothstein in support of the challenge to the Indiana law.
In Osberg v. Foot Locker, Inc., 862 F.3d 198 (2d Cir. 2017), the Second Circuit Court of Appeals rejected employer arguments that would have made it far more difficult to obtain class relief in employee-benefits cases under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, holding that reformation of a pension plan document and monetary relief to a class composed of pension plan participants and beneficiaries did not require proof that each individual class member relied on a mistaken understanding of the plan. The Court sustained a class-wide judgment based on generalized evidence, where the trial court had found that the employer deliberately misled the plan’s participants about a crucial aspect of the plan. Bredhoff & Kaiser represented the class on appeal.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit has issued a decision that will assist pension funds’ efforts to protect worker benefits and to address funding shortfalls, affirming the dismissal of a lawsuit filed by WestRock RKT Company against the PACE Industry Union-Management Pension Fund.