Steven Porzio
Senior Counsel
Steven Porzio is a senior counsel in the Labor & Employment Law Department and a member of the Labor-Management Relations Group. Steve assists both unionized and union-free clients with a full-range of labor and employee relations matters. He represents employers in contract negotiations, arbitrations, and representation and unfair labor practice cases before the National Labor Relations Board.
Steve has experience conducting vulnerability assessments and providing management training in union and litigation avoidance, leave management, wage and hour, and hiring and firing practices. He provides strategic and legal advice in certification and decertification elections, union organizing drives, corporate campaigns, picketing, and union contract campaigns. Steve has advised employers in a number of different industries in successful efforts against unions in election and corporate campaigns.
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As anticipated, today the National Labor Relations Board published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRM”) proposing a regulation which would establish that students at private colleges and universities who perform any services related to their studies for compensation, including teaching and research, are not “employees” within the meaning of Section 2(3) of the National Labor … Continue Reading
In recent weeks, the National Labor Relations Board has issued several employer-friendly decisions, and its September 13 decision in Arlington Metals Corp., 368 NLRB No. 74 (2019) was no exception. In Arlington Metals, the Board considered: (1) whether an employer’s statements during bargaining in response to a union’s economic proposals amounted to an asserted “inability … Continue Reading
On August 14, 2019, the NLRB issued its first decision addressing employer conduct related to mandatory arbitration agreements and Section 7 activity since the Supreme Court decided Epic Systems Corp v. Lewis, 584 U.S. __, 138 S.Ct. 1612 (2018). In Epic Systems (discussed more fully here), the Supreme Court held that agreements between employers and … Continue Reading
In a 2-1 decision issued on August 2, 2019, the National Labor Relations Board (the “Board”) in Electrolux Home Products, Inc., 368 NLRB No. 34 (2019) reversed an Administrative Law Judge’s (“ALJ”) decision, and held that Electrolux’s discharge of a “known” union supporter employee did not violate the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA” or “Act”), … Continue Reading
In late 2017, the NLRB in Boeing Company, 365 NLRB No. 154 (2017), established a new three category system for classifying various employer policies. The new system was designed to balance a “work rule’s negative impact on employees’ ability to exercise their Section 7 rights and the rule’s connection to employers’ right to maintain discipline … Continue Reading
Colleges and universities should take note of the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit’s recent decision in University of Southern California v. National Labor Relations Board, Case No. 17-1149 (D.C. Cir. Mar. 12, 2019) addressing whether non-tenure track faculty at universities are “employees” under the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”), giving them the right … Continue Reading
Earlier today, the National Labor Relations Board (“the Board”) issued its long awaited decision in Columbia University. Not surprisingly, the Board, in a 3-1 decision, overturned 12 years of precedent by ruling that “student assistants” (including assistants engaged in research funded by external grants) who have a “common law” employment relationship with their university are … Continue Reading
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
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
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
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
NLRB Proposes Rule to Settle Once and For All: Student Teaching and Research Assistants Are Not “Employees”
By Paul Salvatore, Steven Porzio and Laura Franks on Posted in NLRA, NLRB, Rulemaking, Section 2(3), Section 7
NLRB Tips Scales in Favor of Employers When Drawing Distinctions Between Claims of “Inability to Pay” Versus “Competitive Disadvantage,” and “Surface” Versus “Hard” Bargaining
By Steven Porzio and Laura Franks on Posted in Collective Bargaining, NLRB
NLRB Issues “Epic” Decision Concerning the Intersection of Mandatory Arbitration Agreements and NLRA Section 7 Rights
By Mark Theodore, Michael Lebowich, Steven Porzio, Joshua Fox and Laura Franks on Posted in Arbitration, NLRA, NLRB, Section 7
NLRB Finds Employer Lawfully Terminated “Known” Union Supporter Despite Finding Its Justification Was Pretextual
By Steven Porzio and Laura Franks on Posted in General Counsel, NLRA, NLRB, Section 8(a)(3), Unfair Labor Practices
Recent ALJ Decision Provides Important Nuance Regarding Workplace No Recording Rules
By Steven Porzio on Posted in Employer policies, NLRA, NLRB, Section 7
D.C. Circuit Weighs In On NLRB Test For Adjunct Faculty Unionization
By Paul Salvatore, Steven Porzio, David Bayer and Laura Franks on Posted in NLRA, Section 7
NLRB Rules That Graduate Students Are Employees
By Paul Salvatore, Edward Brill, Bernard M. Plum and Steven Porzio on Posted in NLRB
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
NLRB Requests Amicus Briefs in Two Significant Cases
By Michael Lebowich and Steven Porzio on Posted in NLRB
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
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
