Benjamin Sachs is the Kestnbaum Professor of Labor and Industry at Harvard Law School and a leading expert in the field of labor law and labor relations. He is also faculty director of the Center for Labor and a Just Economy. Professor Sachs teaches courses in labor law, employment law, and law and social change, and his writing focuses on union organizing and unions in American politics. Prior to joining the Harvard faculty in 2008, Professor Sachs was the Joseph Goldstein Fellow at Yale Law School. From 2002-2006, he served as Assistant General Counsel of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) in Washington, D.C. Professor Sachs graduated from Yale Law School in 1998, and served as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Stephen Reinhardt of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. His writing has appeared in the Harvard Law Review, the Yale Law Journal, the Columbia Law Review, the New York Times and elsewhere. Professor Sachs received the Yale Law School teaching award in 2007 and in 2013 received the Sacks-Freund Award for Teaching Excellence at Harvard Law School. He can be reached at [email protected].
We will have a full analysis of Cemex soon, but among the critical holdings in the (132 page) opinion is this one:
“We conclude that an employer confronted with a demand for recognition may, instead of agreeing to recognize the union, and without committing an 8(a)(5) violation, promptly file a petition pursuant to Section 9(c)(1)(B) to test the union’s majority support and/or challenge the appropriateness of the
unit or may await the processing of a petition previously filed by the union.
However, if the employer commits an unfair labor practice that requires setting aside the election, the petition (whether filed by the employer or the union) will be dismissed, and the employer will be subject to a remedial bargaining order.”
Put somewhat differently, under the rule announced in Cemex (and based on my initial read), an employer presented with a demand for card-check recognition may respond by promptly petitioning for a Board-conducted election. But, if the employer then commits an unfair labor practice that requires invalidating the results of that election, the employer doesn’t get a new election; it gets an order to recognize and bargain with the union. Hence, Cemex establishes a new and quite promising disincentive to employer unfair labor practices: the employer that commits ulp’s in the Cemex context (ones that warrant setting aside the election) must comply with the results of a card check.
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November 20
Philadelphia unions plan a joint strike, Greece faces a 24-hour general strike, and University of California unions set strikes for today and tomorrow.
November 19
Fifth Circuit hears challenges to NLRB; Democratic NLRB majority may be ending soon; building trades unions criticize Democratic party
November 18
In today’s News & Commentary, the Democratic Party Union blasts staff layoffs and Philadelphia city workers threaten mass strike. The Democratic National Committee Staff Union has criticized party leadership following several days of layoffs in the wake of the 2024 election loss. The union claims these cuts go beyond typical post-election turnover and have impacted […]
November 17
DOL overtime rule struck down; Cornell Graduate Student Union speaks on campus repression.
November 15
In today’s News & Commentary, Philadelphia’s largest city workers union authorizes a strike, video game union at Microsoft completes one-day strike, and Massachusetts teachers’ unions are fined. District 33, a union of Philadelphia city workers, has authorized a strike. The union represents 9,000 mostly blue-collar workers, including sanitation workers. Workers are dissatisfied with the city’s […]
November 14
The NLRB bans anti-union captive union meetings and Amazon workers in Alabama get third chance at unionization.