Labor Relations Update
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Michael Lebowich

Partner
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Michael J. Lebowich is a partner in the Labor & Employment Law Department and co-head of the Labor-Management Relations Group. He represents and counsels employers on a wide range of labor and employment matters, with a particular interest in the field of traditional labor law.

Michael acts as the primary spokesperson in collective bargaining negotiations, regularly handles grievance arbitrations, assists clients in the labor implications of corporate transactions, and counsels clients on union organizing issues, strike preparation and day-to-day contract administration issues. He also has significant experience in representation and unfair labor practice matters before the National Labor Relations Board.

His broad employment law experience includes handling of race, national origin, gender and other discrimination matters in state and federal court. A significant amount of his practice is devoted to counseling clients regarding the application and practical impact of the full range of employment laws that affect our clients, including all local, state and federal employment discrimination statutes, the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, and state labor laws.

Michael has substantial experience in a wide variety of industries, including entertainment, broadcasting, newspaper publishing and delivery, utilities and lodging. He represents such clients as The New York Times, BuzzFeed, ABC, the New York City Ballet, PPL, Pacific Gas & Electric, Host Hotels and Resorts, and The Broadway League (and many of its theater owner and producing members).  Michael also has significant public sector experience representing, among others, the City of New York and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Michael is a frequent guest lecturer at Columbia Business School, the Cornell School of Hotel Administration, the New York University Tisch School for Hospitality, Tourism and Sports Management, and is an advisory board member of the Cornell Institute for Hospitality Labor and Employment Relations.

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NLRB General Counsel Issues Handbook on Handbook Rules

By Michael Lebowich, Joshua Fox and Jay M. Cohen on Posted in Advice, General Counsel, Handbook, NLRA, NLRB, Non-Union employers, Section 7, Uncategorized
Following up on the NLRB’s decision in The Boeing Company, 365 NLRB No. 154 (Dec. 14, 2017), on June 6, NLRB General Counsel Peter Robb issued a new Guidance Memorandum (18-04) detailing how NLRB Regional Offices receiving claims of improper employment policies are to interpret employer workplace rules. As we reported this past December (here), … Continue Reading

ABOUT FACE! Under Pressure, NLRB Vacates Joint Employer Standard and Returns to Browning-Ferris

By Michael Lebowich, Joshua Fox and Jordan Simon on Posted in Joint Employer, NLRA, NLRB
In an unexpected and critical turn of events, after extensive political pressure, the NLRB, sitting as a three-member panel comprised of Chairman Kaplan and Members Pearce and McFerran, vacated last year’s decision in Hy-Brand Industrial Contractors, Ltd., 365 NLRB No. 156 (Dec. 14, 2017) due to Member William Emanuel’s participation in the decision. Prior to … Continue Reading

“Micro-Units” Eliminated: NLRB Overturns Specialty Healthcare

By Michael Lebowich and Lee Douthitt on Posted in Bargaining units, NLRA, NLRB, Representation Elections, Specialty Healthcare
Adding to the list of falling precedents in the waning days of Chairman Miscimarra’s term, on Friday, the NLRB reversed another of the seminal decisions of the Obama-Board when it overruled the highly controversial Specialty Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center of Mobile, 357 NLRB 934 (2011) decision.   The 3-2 decision in PCC Structurals, Inc., 365 NLRB … Continue Reading

Here We Go: The Full Board Finally Starts to Make Its Mark

By Michael Lebowich and Joshua Fox on Posted in Employer policies, Handbook, Joint Employer, NLRA, NLRB, Section 7, Section 8(a)(1), Unfair Labor Practices
 NLRB Reverses Precedent on Joint Employer Liability and Standard Governing Employee Handbooks This afternoon, just two days prior to the end of Chairman Philip Miscimarra’s term, the NLRB issued a pair of 3-2 decisions overruling significant precedent regarding joint-employer status and the legal standard governing whether workplace rules violate the exercise of Section 7 rights … Continue Reading

Micro-Units under the Microscope: The Second and Fifth Circuit Courts Consider Specialty Healthcare and Its Misapplication

By Michael Lebowich, Mariya (Masha) Nazginova and Brett Schwab on Posted in Bargaining units, Collective Bargaining, NLRA, NLRB, Section 9(b), Section 9(c)(5), Specialty Healthcare
Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit joined the Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Circuits in upholding the Board’s Specialty Healthcare standard for determining appropriate bargaining units under the National Labor Relations Act, although with a very skeptical eye on how it applied.  Constellation Brands, U.S. Operations, Inc. v. NLRB, … Continue Reading

Permanent Pause to Persuader Rule: Texas Court Issues Permanent Nationwide Injunction

By Michael Lebowich and Lee Douthitt on Posted in Department of Labor, Persuader Rules
On November 16, 2016, in National Federation of Independent Business v. Perez, No. 5:16-cv-00066, a federal judge in Texas issued a permanent injunction  preventing the Department of Labor (the “DOL”) from enforcing its new interpretation of the Labor-Management Disclosure Act’s “Persuader Rule.”  The new DOL interpretation would have required far more expansive public disclosure by law … Continue Reading

Stuck With It: Labor Board Forces Employers to Recognize Bargaining Units that Contain Employees of Two or More Separate Employers

By Michael Lebowich, Corinne Osborn and Rebecca Sivitz on Posted in Bargaining units, NLRB
Returning to a decision it made 16 years ago (but was overturned just 4 years after that), the National Labor Relations Board has once again ruled that it will certify a bargaining unit containing individuals from two or more separate employers without those employers’ consent. In Miller & Anderson, Inc., Case 05–RC–079249 (July 11, 2016), … Continue Reading

In for the Long Haul as the Fifth Circuit Upholds NLRB’s “Quickie” Election Rule

By Michael Lebowich and Steven Porzio on Posted in NLRA, NLRB
Last April, the National Labor Relations Board (“Board”) implemented it’s new expedited union representation procedures. On June 10, 2016, in Associated Builders and Contrs. Of Tex v. NLRB, 15-cv-50487  2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 10552 (5th Cir. June 10, 2016) the Fifth Circuit upheld the new procedures, commonly called “quickie” election rules – – rejecting the … Continue Reading

Board Reverses 32-Year-Old Rule Allowing Employers to Oust Mixed-Guard Unions

By Michael Lebowich and David Bayer on Posted in Bargaining units, NLRA, NLRB, Section 9(b)
For thirty-two years, it has been a settled proposition that an employer may, upon the expiration of a contract, refuse to continue to negotiate with a “mixed-guard” union that represents its security guards. Continuing its long path of upsetting established precedent, on June 9, 2016, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or “Board”) reversed this … Continue Reading

NLRB Requests Amicus Briefs in Two Significant Cases

By Michael Lebowich and Steven Porzio on Posted in NLRB
On Friday, February 19, 2016, the National Labor Relations Board invited interested individuals and organizations to file amicus briefs on two important legal issues where the Board is considering overturning existing precedent. In one case, King Soopers, Inc., NLRB, No. 27-CA-129598 (2/19/16), the NLRB’s General Counsel has asked the Board to change its long-standing practice … Continue Reading

NLRB Issues Union Friendly Decision Regarding Applicability of Quickie Rules: When 94% Just Ain’t Enough

By Michael Lebowich and Steven Porzio on Posted in NLRB
With that the NLRB’s quickie election rules going into effect in April 2015, we are just now starting to see the Board decide cases applying the new rules. In Danbury Hospital, Case 01-RC-153086, the Regional Director for Region 1 on October 16, 2015, lent his interpretation to one of the new requirements of the quickie … Continue Reading

The National Labor Relations Board says “Happy Labor Day” with Flurry of Late Summer Pro-Union Moves

By Michael Lebowich, Corinne Osborn, Steven Porzio and David Bayer on Posted in NLRB
While some people may have been on vacation at the end of August, the past few weeks have been extremely busy at the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or “Board”), with a series of decisions that will continue to make it easier for unions to organize non-union employers. Virtual Organizing Has Arrived! The General Counsel … Continue Reading

Too Close for Comfort? NLRB Departs from Long Standing Joint Employer Standard

By Michael Lebowich and Nayirie K. Mehdikhani on Posted in Employer policies, NLRB
Citing “changing economic circumstances, particularly the recent dramatic growth in contingent employment relationships,” in Browning-Ferris Industries of California, Inc., 362 NLRB No. 186 (August 27, 2015), a 3-2 National Labor Relations Board majority (Pearce, Hirozawa, McFerran) significantly revised and broadened the standard for assessing joint-employer status under the National Labor Relations Act. The primary justification … Continue Reading

General Counsel Office Advocates Dramatic Change to Joint Employer Standard

By Michael Lebowich on Posted in General Counsel, NLRB
Earlier this year, in the case of Browning –Ferris Industries of California, Inc., 32-RC-109684, the NLRB invited parties to submit briefs on whether the Board should change its long-held standards for assessing when two separate entities should be treated as “joint employers”.   Late last week, the Board’s General Counsel submitted a brief advocating for a … Continue Reading

Hail Mary: NLRB Regional Director Holds College Football Players are Employees

By Michael Lebowich on Posted in Bargaining units, NLRA, NLRB, Section 7, Uncategorized
On March 26, 2014, Peter Sung Ohr, the Chicago Regional Director of the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) ruled that members of the Northwestern University football team receiving athletic scholarships are employees, and not students, under the National Labor Relations Act, allowing them the opportunity to unionize through an NLRB election. First and Ten: A … Continue Reading

NLRB General Counsel Allows Discharge for Inappropriate “Tweeting”

By Michael Lebowich on Posted in General Counsel, NLRB, Non-Union employers, Protected activity, Section 7, Social Media
Employee use of social media remains at the forefront of issues at the National Labor Relations Board.  Coming on the heels of the NLRB General Counsel’s decision to issue a complaint against an employer who fired an employee for her postings on Facebook (the first time such on-line activities were considered “protected, concerted activity” by the … Continue Reading

Is the Board Ready to Move on Relocation Decisions?

By Michael Lebowich on Posted in NLRB, Relocation
The National Labor Relations Board recently issued a business relocation decision in Embarq Corporation, 356 NLRB No. 125 (2011), which would not have been noteworthy if not for Chairman Liebman’s concurrence.  Chairman Liebman signaled that the Board may be ready to revisit its longstanding analysis regarding a business’ obligation to bargain with a union and … Continue Reading

The NLRB Solicits Amicus Briefs On Whether Witness Statements Must Be Handed Over to a Union

By Michael Lebowich on Posted in NLRB
As Ron Meisburg reported last week, the National Labor Relations Board recently announced in Hawaii Tribune-Herald, 356 N.L.R.B. No. 63 (2011) that it might reconsider its long-standing precedent that employers are not required to provide “witness statements” obtained in the course of a disciplinary investigation, to the unions representing their employees. As we anticipated, following its … Continue Reading

Roundy’s – – Is the Board Ready to Use this Union Access Case to Overturn Register Guard?

By Michael Lebowich on Posted in NLRB
Late last year, the Board invited interested groups to file briefs in Roundy’s, Inc., 356 NLRB No. 27 (2010), a case involving what legal standard should be applied to determine whether an employer has violated the NLRA when it prevents non-employee union representatives to access to its property.  In Sanudsky Mall Co., 329 NLRB 618 (1999), … Continue Reading

The NLRA and the Non-Union Employer: Proposed Union Rights Poster

By Michael Lebowich on Posted in NLRB, Non-Union employers, Rulemaking
Late last year, the National Labor Relations Board announced that it was planning on issuing a new rule that would require all employers (even those that are not currently unionized) to put up a poster detailing all of the rights (including the right to join a union) guaranteed to employees under the National Labor Relations Act.  This was the first proposed use of administrative … Continue Reading
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