In the first part of this two-part series, I explained why it’s important for European companies planning to do business in the U.S. to avoid inadvertently mobilizing unionization efforts among their U.S. workforces and violating the National Labor Relation Act (NLRA) when such efforts are underway, and to understand how European works councils and U.S. labor unions differ. In this second part, I offer a nine-step playbook for European companies to follow to help them stay compliant with U.S. labor laws as they contemplate and eventually decide to launch U.S. operations.
The playbook applies with even greater urgency when a European company enters the U.S. by acquiring an existing operation rather than building one from scratch. An acquired facility may come with an existing collective bargaining agreement the company inherits as a successor employer, or a workforce with union sympathies or a dormant organizing campaign already underway.
First, as they begin exploring expansion into the U.S., European companies should retain experienced counsel knowledgeable about both U.S. and European labor laws to guide the company through the process of deciding whether to expand to the U.S. A lawyer who has never encountered a works council cannot reasonably be expected to anticipate the instincts that will get a European manager into trouble. Likewise, a lawyer with no experience engaging with U.S. labor unions will place the...
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