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Complaints about unfair labor practices increased 10 percent and union requests rose 3 percent for fiscal year 2023, which ended Sept. 30, the National Labor Relations Board reported in October.
An NLRB spokesman said the agency doesn’t break down statistics by industry, so it doesn’t have construction-specific data, but employers and unions are searchable in its database. A search for “construction” returns 5,570 results out of 453,517, or about 1%.
Even without industry-specific data, contractors need to be aware of the current labor climate and what that may mean for their union and non-union workforce, and what other pro-union rules, such as a recent change. modification of the procedures in union elections — The NLRB could make it affect them in the future.
“In a way, this is the tip of the spear,” said Steven Bernstein, a partner and co-chair of the Atlanta-based law firm Fisher Phillips’s Labor Relations Practice Group. “It really remains to be seen what many of these are [NLRB] the initiatives will achieve”.
Andrew McDonald
Permission granted by Fox Rothschild
Andrew McDonald has seen more charges filed by individuals, as opposed to unions, he said.
“There is a general increase in momentum and awareness of employee labor rights,” said McDonald, co-chair of the labor-management relations practice at the Philadelphia-based law firm Fox Rothschild. “At the same time, the unions are also being more aggressive in presenting more complaints than in the past,” he added.
None of this should come as a surprise, said Scott R. Green, vice president of employment and labor at the New York City-based law firm Goldberg Segalla and a member of the Associated Builders and Contractors. The Biden administration has been billed as the most pro-union administration ever, and the makeup of the NLRB is “fundamentally different and much more pro-union than anything we’ve seen in 50 years,” he said.
The NLRB has five members, although there is currently one vacancy, and is described “as a quasi-judicial body for deciding cases on the basis of formal records in administrative proceedings.” The president appoints members for five-year terms with the approval of the Senate. Currently, three Democrats and one Republican serve on the board, according to its website.
Working climate
Almost every industry in the United States is riding a wave of pro-union sentiment. The recent labor negotiation wins the UAW vs. Big Five Automakers i Teamsters new contract with UPShave continued with this momentum.
“You’re likely to see unions become more aggressive, especially if there’s some kind of federal money or federal construction projects,” said John Logan, professor and chair of the labor and employment studies department at San State University. Francisco Lam Family College of Business. . “The unions feel like they have an ally in the White House and now is the time to try to make meaningful gains.”
Cases of some construction employers acting in bad faith can make things difficult for contractors in a pro-union climate.
For example, Wage theft is more of a problem in construction than in any other industry. The Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division recovered more than $32.9 million in back wages for more than 17,000 construction workers in fiscal year 2022, more than $5 million more than the second-largest industry in food services
In one such case earlier this month, Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell ordered Framingham, Mass.-based BPI Construction Management to pay $927,000 for a failure to pay current wages by the subcontractor to the workers of two public projects.
The NLRB has also formed an enhanced partnership with OSHA that now provides for coordinated enforcement of laws that prohibit retaliation against workers who increase security concerns, according to a Bloomberg report.
These combined efforts will bring greater scrutiny to labor practices, although they will require funding. The NRLB is also asking Congress to approve the President’s budget request for an additional $376 million for the agency. This would mean a significant increase in funding, more than double its current budget of about 300 million dollars. It’s also a much bigger ask than the one they got in fiscal 2022 — a $25 million hike.
In a statement, Jennifer Abruzzo, general counsel of the NLRB, said the money “is badly needed to effectively and efficiently meet our congressional mandate to provide quality service quickly to the public in conducting hearings and elections, investigation of charges, resolution of meritorious litigation”. cases and the obtaining of full and rapid remedies for workers whose rights are violated”.
Training was once a luxury, now a necessity
In addition to learning what the NLRB’s recent and future decisions will mean for the construction industry, Bernstein said employers should train supervisors about the legal stuff and how to interact with workers who may make demands for recognition. trade union
Steven Bernstein
Permission granted by Fisher Phillips
“In the past, effective training was a luxury. Now it is a necessity”, he said. Because of a The August NLRB ruling that determined that unions can represent workers without elections“even a single unfair labor practice can trigger a bargaining order.”
Contractors should also be aware of labor standards tied to any federal construction project, especially those from the Jobs and Infrastructure Investments Act and the Inflation Reduction Act, Green said. They come with project labor contracts which include things like prevailing wages and certified apprentice shops, although both ABC and Associated General Contractors of America only filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration to demand prevailing wages in federal employment.
Two in three Americans approve of unions, according to an August Gallup poll, and experts don’t suspect sentiment will change anytime soon, especially in construction, which has a tight labor market. The situation has been made worse by the aging and retiring construction workers, Green added. One in five construction workers is 55 or older, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“That makes it more difficult as an employer. You have to keep these people happy because you need them,” Green said. “Your life depends on it.”
