Most recently, on June 27, 2025, the D.C. Circuit upheld an NLRB ruling that George Washington University Hospital (“Hospital”) engaged in bad-faith bargaining during its 2016 to 2018 negotiations with 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East (“Union”). The three-judge panel unanimously upheld the NLRB’s 2024 determination that the Hospital’s conduct—centered around three core proposals—amounted to unlawful surface bargaining in violation of Sections 8(a)(1) and 8(a)(5) of the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”).
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Amazon, SpaceX Must Navigate Procedural Roadblocks in Constitutional Challenge of NLRB
By Joshua Fox & Michael Kratochvil on
On November 18, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit heard oral argument on cases involving Amazon.com Inc. and SpaceX, respectively, challenging the constitutionality of the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or the “Board”) in several respects. In both cases, the companies seek to halt underlying Board…
BREAKING: Texas District Court Strikes Down NLRA Joint Employer Rule
By Joshua Fox & Rachel Kessler on
On March 8, just three days before the National Labor Relations Board’s (the “Board”) new joint-employer standard was set to take effect, Judge J. Campbell Barker of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas struck down the new standard, delaying its implementation further.
In his opinion, Judge…
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
By Joshua Fox, Michael Lebowich & David Gobel on
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
By Michael Lebowich & Alexander J. Blutman on
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…
Not A Clean Break: Cautionary Tale for Employers Looking To Close Plants
By Joshua Fox, Mark Theodore & David Gobel on
In a very active end of summer for labor law, the National Labor Relations Board (“Board”) ruled in a 2-1 decision, in Quickway Transportation, Inc., 372 NLRB No. 127, that a company’s closure of a terminal where its drivers were unionized violated the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”).