Two years after Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo overturned Chevron, its impact on labor law is beginning to take shape, most recently in Hospital Menonita De Guayama v. NLRB. As previous writers on the blog have detailed, Loper Bright has not had the immediate impact on labor law that some predicted. Hospital Menonita may be one of the first cases where Loper Bright actually changed the outcome. In July, the D.C. Circuit struck down the NLRB’s successor-bar doctrine, which prevents challenges to an incumbent union’s majority status for a reasonable period of time after the entrance of a successor employer.
When a new owner takes over a unionized business and maintains the predecessor’s workforce, it generally must recognize and bargain with the incumbent union. However, the new owner ordinarily does not have to adopt the predecessor’s collective-bargaining agreement and may be able to set new initial wages, benefits, and other working conditions. Accordingly, incumbent unions following a change in ownership are in a “peculiarly vulnerable position,” as the Supreme Court recognized in Fall River Dyeing.
The Board adopted the current successor bar doctrine in UGL-UNICCO Service Co. in 2011. When a new employer takes over a unionized business and qualifies as a successor, the incumbent union receives an irrebuttable presumption of majority support for a “reasonable period” of at least six months. During that period, the employer, employees,...
A Wixom, Michigan, business accused of making false statements to obtain a loan has agreed to pay a settlement of just over $1.5 million after it was sued by the federal government, according to th...