Labor Relations

BakerHostetler has a long and successful history of representing U.S. businesses in their dealings with organized labor.

We believe the best labor relations policies are those that avoid the need to battle with the government, unions or employees. Our focus is on helping our clients maintain positive relationships with their workforce, and our reputation for credibility, integrity and positive results is well established in the labor management community. Protecting our clients’ credibility as employers is our No. 1 concern.

Our relationships with many clients and the unions that represent their workers span several decades in industries including hospitality, manufacturing, transportation, media, healthcare and sports. Our team also partners with many international clients doing business in the U.S. on navigating labor relations and acting as the labor relations representative in the purchase and sale agreement and hotel management agreement contexts.

Struck a landmark agreement with a hotel labor union in a marathon bargaining session that saved a historic East Coast hotel from closing. The three-year agreement gave the distressed hotel a chance to get back on its feet while preserving jobs for hotel employees – and forged a new benchmark in hospitality labor agreements. The agreement provided an exit for employees from the national retirement fund while implementing a new 401(k) plan; increased employee healthcare premiums, but with a performance incentive to defray the increase; gave employees more flexibility in paid-time-off arrangements; and froze wages at a slightly elevated level for three years. The agreement also created additional novel performance incentives.
Represented one of the largest hotels in the Midwest (with more than 2,000 rooms) regarding the hotel’s labor relations contract. The owner had previously left the management of the labor relations aspect of the hotel with the manager of the hotel and did not get involved. However, the owner decided to get involved this year to gain more insight into the process. With this, he retained our team to assume the role of overseeing the labor negotiations and advise the hotel’s manager in labor relations issues. We advised and provided counsel and institutional knowledge on behalf of ownership. We ultimately reached a deal for a new, five-year contract, which is very favorable for the hotel and advanced the interest of the ownership.
Represented our long-term client, a food and produce distributor in the Washington D.C. area in negotiations for a labor contract following a union election that they had lost. Two years later the union was decertified, however the union returned and sought to reinstate themselves in the election to represent the truck drivers. We were engaged to help with the election. Our client won the election by a landslide in an overwhelming 3-1 margin. Shortly after winning this election, the client sold its interest and, as a result of winning and because it was nonunionized, was sold at a multiplier much greater in light of its workforce being non-unionized.