Throwing out 75 Years of precedent in a single decision, on November 13, 2024, in Amazon.com Services LLC, the National Labor Relations Board (the “Board”) the Board overruled the seminal case of Babcock & Wilcox Co., 77 NLRB 577 (1948) and held that, going forward, employers violate the

Michael Lebowich
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.
Don’t Say That: NLRB Overrules Forty-Year Precedent, Increasing Scrutiny on Employer Statements Regarding the Impact of Unionization
On November 8, 2024, in Siren Retail Corp d/b/a Starbucks, the National Labor Relations Board (the “Board”) ruled that employers may violate the National Labor Relations Act (the “Act”) by making statements to workers regarding the impact that unionization would have on the relationship between employees and management, overruling…
New York City to License Hotels: What You Need to Know
On November 4, 2024, Mayor Eric Adams signed into law Int. No. 991-C (the “Act”), which establishes a new licensure requirement for hotels to operate in New York City, requiring new staffing, safety, cleanliness and direct employment standards.
The stated purpose of the Act, referred to as the “Safe…
New York Bans Mandatory Captive Audience Meetings
On September 6, New York State Governor Kathy Hochul signed into law (A6604 / S4982) a bill banning businesses from requiring employees to attend meetings or listen to communications where the “primary purpose” of such meetings or communications is for management to voice its views on certain religious…
What A Week…NLRB Unleashes Slew Of Preceding-Shifting Decisions And Paves The Way For Increased Unionization
The National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or “Board”) engaged in a pre-Labor Day frenzy that coincided with the conclusion of Member Gywnne Wilcox’s 3-year term. Labor Relations Update has been at the forefront of keeping pace with this abrupt series of precedent reversals, providing summaries and analyses of these impactful…
Raytheon No More: NLRB Significantly Cuts Down Employers’ Power to Act Unilaterally
In another much-anticipated reversal of existing precedent, as the National Labor Relations Board (“Board”) completes its late-summer flurry before the Labor Day weekend, the Board issued a pair of decisions overruling different aspects of the 2017 decision Raytheon Network Centric Systems, 365 NLRB No. 161 (2017) (see our discussion…
NLRB Precedent Again Proves Malleable As Board Remolds Standard On Protected Concerted Activity in Miller Plastic Products
Continuing the rapid flow of overturned precedents, in a 3-1 decision released on August 31, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or “Board”) redrew the line on when a single person’s individual action could be considered “concerted,” and thus, protected, under the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”). In Miller Plastic…
No Limits: Non-Compete Agreements Next Up on NLRB General Counsel Chopping Block
Following the National Labor Relations Board’s (“NLRB”) highly-controversial decision in McLaren Macomb declaring most confidentiality and non-disparagement clauses in separation agreements to be unlawful, General Counsel Abruzzo this week declared her intention to seek to invalidate nearly all post-employment non-compete agreements, in a memorandum stating her prosecutorial position that…