Advocates for Labor and Progressive Institutions
On May 28, 2014, the National Education Association and the Alabama Education Association, through several individual plaintiffs, prevailed in the Circuit Court for Montgomery County, Alabama, on a challenge to the constitutionality of the Alabama Accountability Act.
Bredhoff & Kaiser represents the respondents in the Supreme Court case M&G Polymers USA, LLC v. Tackett, which addresses the issue of how courts determine whether an employer’s promise to provide health benefits to its retirees is enforceable after expiration of the collective bargaining agreement that contains the promise.
After enduring six years without wage increases, Local 36 of the International Association of Firefighters won 10% across-the-board increases, as well as other improvements, in its interest arbitration with the District of Columbia.
In a landmark ruling of great importance to unions and other activist organizations, the Ninth Circuit held that the non-violent use of economic pressure, including “intense” economic pressure that may be tortious under state law, is not “extortion” under the federal Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO).
On June 24, 2014, Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 89 prevailed before the Unfair Labor Practice Panel of the Prince George’s County Public Employee Relations Board (PERB), which ruled that the County Police Department violated the County Labor Code when it transferred a Sergeant from the Homicide Section of the Criminal Investigations Division to patrol duty based on his concerted activity.
On September 30, 2014, Local 891 of the Operative Plasterers and Cement Masons International Association (OPCMIA) obtained an order from Region 5 of the National Labor Relations Board directing a representation election among cement masons performing concrete finishing work for Baker DC in DC, Virginia, and Maryland. Bredhoff & Kaiser, which has represented OPCMIA Local 891 for over 35 years, successfully argued that the petitioned-for unit of cement masons was an appropriate unit pursuant to the NLRB’s community of interest standard articulated in Specialty Healthcare & Rehabilitation Center of Mobile, 357 NLRB No. 83 (2011).
On August 7, 2014, the Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers, and Grain Millers International Union and Local 252-G of that Union, together with the General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board, obtained an injunction under § 10(j) of the NLRA in the Federal District Court in Memphis Tennessee requiring Kellogg Company to end its 10-month lockout of 220 workers at its Memphis, Tennessee ready to eat cereal plant.
On March 4, 2014, Local 4011 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, along with the Jefferson County Board of Education and its Superintendent, prevailed in the Circuit Court of Jefferson County, Kentucky, rebuffing a challenge, funded by the National Right to Work Foundation, to a collective bargaining agreement between Local 4011 and the Board of Education covering the Board’s non-teaching employees.
In a unanimous decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled in favor of AFSCME Council 25, United Auto Workers, and Child Care Providers Together Michigan, affirming a district court decision that rejected an attempt by the National Right to Work Foundation to certify a class action on behalf of some 40,000 Michigan home-based child-care providers. Schlaud v. Snyder, ___ F.3d ___, 2013 WL 2221589 (6th Cir. May 22, 2013).