Practice Areas & Industries: Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, PC

Practice/Industry Group Overview

Dealing with federally-protected ">rights of ">employees to engage in union activity and other forms of protected group ">conduct is problematic for both the unionized and non-unionized employer.  The Firm's extremely experienced and skilled ">labor ">attorneys provide clients with representation in these specialized and technical areas before the National ">Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the ">United ">States Department of Labor (DOL), state labor ">agencies and arbitrators.  Several of the Firm's labor attorneys worked for years in highly responsible positions with the NLRB prior to their entering ">private practice.  The Firm's labor attorneys represent solely the interests of ">management, and while we are committed to a philosophy of preventive labor relations, we also provide aggressive representation for clients who are targeted by ">unions for organizational attempts.  This includes orchestration and oversight of effective counter campaigns, plus all attendant litigation.  Additionally, our labor attorneys negotiate ">collective bargaining agreements, arbitrate matters of just ca ">use ">discipline and contract interpretation matters, and conduct extensive tailored ">training on numerous labor relations matters including dealing with devious union organizing tactics such as "salting" and corporate campaigns.  We also ">counsel and advise management in strike contingency planning, strike management, procurement of needed state court injunctive relief, and on the use of offensive and defensive lockouts.

Representative Matters

• Successfully orchestrated and conducted campaigns to counter organizing drives in numerous and varied industries. In several instances, our attorneys' efforts have thwarted union campaigns prior to the filing of petitions with the NLRB.
• Successfully counseled a health care provider in countering a union organizational drive by advancing a position that all petitioned for Registered Nurses were statutory "supervisors" and, therefore, excluded from the coverage of the National Labor Relations Act.  This matter was precedent setting.
• Defended, as co-counsel, Fortune 100 corporation against collective action brought on behalf of several unionized facilities pursuant to Fair Labor Standards Act.
• Represented major paper company in arbitral forum regarding work assignment claims brought by labor organization under collective bargaining agreement.
  Successfully represented employer in connection with decertification of labor organization under National Labor Relations Act.
• Successfully represented national and international airline in defending a claim of failure to fairly represent.  The case was successfully resolved in favor of the airline employer by way of summary judgment issued in the United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee.
• Successfully represented national airline in federal district court with the court finding that the collective bargaining agreement pre-empted a unionized employee's claim of unjust discharge.
• Negotiated collective bargaining agreements throughout the United States for a number of major American corporations.
• In house training designed and implemented for numerous service, manufacturing, warehouse and other clients with respect to the proper methods and means to proactively prevent union organizational attempts, assess union vulnerability, and extensive training of supervisors in working with today's diverse workforce.
  Regularly counseled clients on proactive labor relations to assure compliance with the governmental regulation of employment as well as employment crisis management.
• Regularly representing employers in pre-election representation hearings before the NLRB regarding components and scope of proposed bargaining unit.  In addition, assist employer clients in overseeing NLRB-sponsored union elections.
   

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