Overview

Our firm has been advising clients on labor/management relations matters since the early 1930s, when New Deal statutes created federal collective bargaining rights for employees.  We have represented union and non-union employers in both the private and public sectors in addressing the full breadth of labor relations issues.

What We Do

We provide our clients with practical ways to achieve their business goals while at the same time allowing them to remain in control of labor/management relations.

We have substantial experience counseling non-union clients who wish to remain union-free and have guided many employers through organizing campaigns in which employees chose to remain non-union. 

For clients with unionized workforces, we provide practical solutions to day-to-day labor issues.  We advise management in collective bargaining negotiations, often acting as the lead negotiator at the bargaining table.  We also are experienced in administering collective bargaining agreements and in representing management in grievance and arbitration proceedings arising under those agreements.  We represent employers in R-cases and in unfair labor practice matters arising under the National Labor Relations Act and related federal and state laws. 

When work stoppages occur, we actively work with our clients to address the issues surrounding such incidents, including obtaining injunctive relief to address improper picketing or illegal wildcat strikes, preventing disruption of business relationships by pursuing secondary boycott charges, counseling on replacement of striking workers, and handling post-strike litigation.

Our labor relations experience includes:

  • We currently manage all of the North American labor and employment work for an international Fortune 1,000 manufacturer with more than 13,000 employees.  We currently provide counsel to 30 unionized plants and oversee all Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) negotiations, contract administration, charges of unfair labor practices and arbitration proceedings.
  • We handle CBA negotiations across the country on behalf of a major steel manufacturer.  These negotiations primarily involve the United Steelworkers.
  • We handle CBA negotiations and other labor issues for a specialty foods wholesaler and its local delivery drivers represented by the Teamsters Union.
  • We handle labor matters for a national auto glass repair company.
  • We assist a client, who manufactures sheet molding compounds and molds fiberglass reinforced plastics, in all of its labor negotiations, contract administration and arbitrations since its founding in the 1990s.  Most of this work involved the International Association of Machinists Union.
  • Since the 1970s, we have helped one of the largest privately held adhesives manufacturers with all of its labor negotiations with the United Industrial Workers union, contract administration and arbitrations.
  • For more than 15 years, we have represented the world’s largest recycler of spent refinery catalyst in a variety of its labor relations matters, including the negotiation of its collective bargaining agreements in its U.S. facilities.
  • For the past 20 years, we have represented a manufacturer concerning all of its labor matters including negotiation of its collective bargaining agreement with the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Ship Builders, Blacksmiths, Forgers and Helpers union.
  • We also regularly work with a number of different, non-union clients in connection with their efforts to remain non-union.  We have successfully advised clients in retail, manufacturing, entertainment and logistics industries in connection with hundreds of union organizing drives and election petitions.

News & Insights

Publications

  • Stay Up to Date on
    Labor-related Issues

    The Vorys on Labor blog focuses on traditional labor issues of interest to labor professionals in both the public and private sector.  Reading Vorys on Labor will help keep you informed about recent developments at the National Labor Relations Board, the Ohio State Employment Relations Board, and in Congress.

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