Practice Strengths

The new American economy and recent rift in the nation's labor movement have changed the employment landscape dramatically. Unionized employers require innovative approaches to secure necessary operational efficiencies and economic relief. Non-union employers are faced with new organizing strategies, particularly in the healthcare, hospitality and telecommunication industries. Our labor lawyers can help you understand the impact this new labor movement may have on your workforce and your bottom line.

At Baker Hostetler, we believe that the best labor relations policies are those that prevent the need to battle with the government, unions or employees. Our focus is always on helping our clients maintain positive relationships with their workforce within the parameters of their business needs and corporate culture. Protecting our client's credibility as an employer is our number one concern. Our reputation for credibility, integrity and results is well known in the labor-management community.

Our experienced labor relations lawyers assist clients with the full range of traditional labor law issues, including:

• Counseling clients on labor relations strategy and day-to-day employment decisions
• Employee relations audits and assessments
• Representation and decertification petitions
• Labor contract administration
• Grievance/arbitrations (including rights and interest arbitration
• Collective bargaining
• Preparing for and dealing with picketing, strikes, lockouts and other economic tactics
• National Labor Relations Board practice
• Maintaining a positive employee environment
• Preparing for and responding to union corporate campaigns

In addition, we also counsel management on labor relations issues arising from mergers and acquisitions, shutdowns, relocations and other business reorganizations.

Our focus is always on helping our clients develop and maintain positive relationships with their employees.

Recognition

• We have been sought out for insight on labor relations issues by national media, such as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, “Good Morning America,” Bloomberg News Radio, The Los Angeles Times and other publications across the country.
• One of our lawyers is the only person to have served as both the Chair of the NLRB and as Director of the Wage and Hour Division of the Federal Department of Labor.
• Eleven of our employment and labor partners are listed in The Best Lawyers in America.
• Our employment and labor practice is ranked among the leading practices in Ohio and Florida (Chambers USA, 2009).
• Chambers USA 2009 lists a total of seven Florida and Ohio employment partners as leaders in employment law.
• Employment lawyers have received special regional recognition in Florida Trend's “Legal Elite" publication.
• Some of the individual recognition our lawyers have attained include selection as one of America's leading black lawyers by Black Enterprise magazine, receiving the District of Columbia Bar's “Legends in the Law” award, the Republican National Lawyers Association's “Republican Lawyer of the Year” award, and inclusion as a Fellow in the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers.

Leadership in Action

Labor Relations: An Integrated Approach Proves Successful

While defending our client against simultaneous drives at multiple locations, we successfully maintained a working bargaining relationship with the union at other facilities.

Client: National air and freight transportation company with more than 100 service centers.

Type of Matter: Labor Relations

Our Client's Challenge: Our client's workforce was located in more than 100 facilities across the country, and approximately 40 percent of the employees were represented by one union.  The union had embarked on a corporate campaign against the client and was seeking to win representation rights to unionize at five facilities simultaneously.

The Goal: Win the organizing drives at these locations while maintaining a working bargaining relationship with the same union, which represented a significant number of employees in nearby cities.  The client also needed to defend itself against corporate campaign activity by the same union across the country.

Our Strategy: Our labor relations lawyers worked as an integrated team with client representatives to manage and coordinate our targeted approach to winning these multifacility drives.  We addressed several key issues that helped our client improve relations between management and employees and we developed a communication plan to demonstrate the benefits of working directly with management.  Our positive stance in dealing not only with employees but also with the union ensured that our approach in winning these elections also succeeded in maintaining a working bargaining relationship with the union.

Results: Our client won all five drives and there has been no subsequent organizing activity.  Importantly, we were able to defeat the drives while maintaining a working bargaining relationship at other facilities and defending corporate campaign activity by the same union.

Labor Relations Experience

• Represented major metropolitan newspapers throughout the United States in collective bargaining designed to achieve workforce reductions and operating efficiencies; in hundreds of arbitrations; in numerous proceedings before the NLRB; and in solving day-to-day problems in such diverse fields as production, circulation and advertising.
• Represented an aerospace manufacturer in an organization drive by four unions involving more than 5,000 "gray collar" employees.
• Reduced by 90 percent the number of bargaining sessions needed to reach agreement between International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) and a broadcast television station group through the use of interest bargaining, a “tradeoff” approach that is the exception rather than the rule in union negotiations.
• Successfully reached an agreement with the International Association of Machinists in negotiations involving multiple sites in Massachusetts and Texas for a large aerospace and defense manufacturer.
• Represented a division of a publicly traded company in the decertification of a union which had represented its employees for over 50 years.
• Handled contract negotiations for a municipal transit authority, avoiding a threatened strike by 600 drivers, mechanics and other employees, enabling the client to address operational inefficiencies.
• Assisted a large municipality in its negotiations with the Fraternal Order of Police, resulting in a favorable three-year contract.

About Our Employment Team
Ranked among the Top Employment Law Firms by Workforce Management Magazine in 2007, Baker Hostetler counsels many of the nation's leading companies on all aspects of employment law. With more than 100 lawyers coast-to-coast, Baker Hostetler's Employment and Labor Group represents numerous FORTUNE 500 companies, and for many of these companies, we serve as their national employment and labor counsel. Our comprehensive employment practice is comparable in size and depth to top employment law boutiques, but we offer the broader resources of a leading, full-service firm.