Steven Porzio

Steven J. Porzio is a partner 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 represented employers in a number of different industries, including higher education, health care, construction and manufacturing in successful efforts against unions in election and corporate campaigns.

In addition to his traditional labor law work, Steve assists companies with handbook and personnel policy drafting and review, daily management of employee disciplines and terminations, and general advice and counsel on compliance with federal and state employment laws.

Steve’s litigation experience includes work on matters before state and federal courts, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities, the New York State Division of Human Rights and various other administrative agencies. He has litigated matters involving age, race, national origin, gender and disability discrimination, wage and hour, whistleblower and wrongful termination claims.

While attending the Syracuse University College of Law, Steve served as the editor-in-chief of the Syracuse Science and Technology Law Reporter. He also received the Robert F. Koretz scholarship, awarded in recognition of excellence in the study of labor law.

Contact:

New GC Memo Providing Guidance on Cemex Decision

By Steven Porzio, Joshua Fox & Shanice Z. Smith-Banks on November 9, 2023

As recently discussed, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) issued a major decision this summer in Cemex Construction Materials Pacific, LLC, 372 NLRB No. 130 (2023). The decision gave labor unions the upper hand in the organizing process by requiring employers to take union demands for recognition much…

NLRB Issues New Rule Relaxing Joint Employer Standard

By Steven Porzio & Alexander J. Blutman on October 26, 2023

In a much-anticipated rulemaking, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or “Board”) has established a new standard for determining whether two employers are joint employers of particular employees within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act (“Act”). Under the final rule, published today, an entity may be considered…

Here We Go Again: Board Resurrects “Quickie” Election Rules

By Steven Porzio, Joshua Fox, Melissa C. Felcher & Raymond Arroyo on August 28, 2023

With over 58,000 workers reportedly unionizing so far in 2023 and the number of representation petitions on the rise, it comes as no surprise that the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or the “Board”) continues to make changes to expedite the unionization process.

Specifically, in a recent rule published…

Third Act: NLRB Reinstates Employee-Friendly Independent Contractor Analysis under the NLRA

By Steven Porzio, Joshua Fox & Alexander J. Blutman on June 15, 2023

In a hotly-anticipated decision, The Atlanta Opera, Inc., 372 NLRB No. 95 (2023), the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or “Board”) overturned the existing legal standard for determining whether a worker is an employee or an independent contractor for purposes of the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”). Employees have…

Supreme Court Decision Cements Employers’ Ability to Sue for Strike Destruction

By Steven Porzio & Alexander J. Blutman on June 5, 2023

In an 8-1 decision announced Thursday in Glacier Northwest, Inc. v. Int’l Bhd. of Teamsters Local Union No. 174, U.S., No. 21-1449, 6/1/23, the Supreme Court ruled that an employer’s tort claims alleging that a union intentionally destroyed a company’s property during a labor dispute were not preempted by…

No Limits: Non-Compete Agreements Next Up on NLRB General Counsel Chopping Block

By Michael Lebowich, Mark Theodore, Steven Porzio, Joshua Fox, Elizabeth Dailey & Raymond Arroyo on May 31, 2023

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…

Board Rescinds Four Provisions to 2019 Election Rule Following Federal Appeals Court Vacating the Provisions

By Steven Porzio, Yonatan Grossman-Boder & Austin McLeod on March 13, 2023

Thursday, the NLRB issued a notice to rescind four provisions from the Board’s Rules and Regulations contained in its Final Rule published in December 2019 (the “2019 rule”). The Board’s notice rescinding all four provisions, which were struck down by the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in January…

It’s Up To You New York, New York; NLRB Reinstates Worker-Friendly Standard for Access to Third-Party Property

By Steven Porzio, Joshua Fox & Hannah Morris on December 19, 2022

The National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or “Board”) capped off an extremely busy week, by issuing another precedent-reversing decision, on the last day of Republican Member John Ring’s 5-year term. In Bexar County II, 372 NLRB No. 28, the Board revised the standard and thus limited the circumstances property…

Labor Relations Update