In today’s news and commentary, the NLRB abandons its Lion Elastomers framework for offensive conduct during protected activity, nearly 190,000 New York home care workers seek a union election, and maritime deck officers continue a years-long fight for first contracts.

On Wednesday, the NLRB abandoned its Lion Elastomers framework for determining when employee misconduct causes otherwise protected concerted activity to lose protection under the NLRA. The Board concluded that the Fifth Circuit’s 2024 decision vacating Lion Elastomers effectively reinstated the General Motors standard, which applies the Wright Line framework to determine whether an employer disciplined a worker for protected activity or accompanying abusive conduct. Lion Elastomers had instead restored setting-specific standards that afforded workers greater leeway for misconduct occurring during protected activity. The shift makes it easier for employers to discipline or fire workers for offensive or abusive conduct that occurs while they are engaged in otherwise protected concerted activity. 

Meanwhile, 1199SEIU has filed for a union election covering nearly 190,000 New York home care workers, in what the union says would be the largest union election in U.S. history. The workers provide care through New York’s Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program (CDPAP), a Medicaid-funded program that allows individuals to select their own personal assistants. More than 70,000 workers have signed union authorization cards, according to 1199SEIU. The organizing drive follows New York’s consolidation of CDPAP administration under a single fiscal intermediary, Public Partnerships LLC (PPL), which took over the program in April 2025. Since the transition, workers have reported missed or inaccurate pay and other problems, while PPL recently agreed to a proposed $162 million wage-and-hour settlement covering roughly 200,000 personal assistants.

Finally, licensed deck officers at Alaska Tanker Company (ATC) and Overseas Shipholding Group (OSG) are continuing their fight for first contracts more than two years after voting for representation by the International Organization of Masters, Mates & Pilots (MM&P). The union won 80% of the vote at ATC and 70% of the vote at OSG in NLRB-certified elections in 2024. In separate decisions this year, the NLRB ordered ATC and OSG to recognize and bargain with the union, finding that their refusals violated Sections 8(a)(1) and 8(a)(5) of the NLRA.

Both companies challenged the bargaining units, including whether chief mates qualify as statutory supervisors, and have since sought federal appellate review. The companies maintain that their challenges concern the composition of the bargaining units rather than opposition to union representation. But the prolonged legal fight has delayed bargaining, leaving officers without the union contracts they voted to pursue. MM&P representatives have also expressed concern that continued delays could cause workers to lose faith in the organizing effort, although they say the officers have remained united.