Author: The Law Office of Eric R. Brown
-
An End to Mandatory Anti-Union Meetings
In a landmark decision, the National Labor Relations Board has ruled that employers can no longer require workers to attend anti-union meetings, overturning a 75-year-old precedent. The ruling came in a case involving Amazon’s Staten Island facilities, where the company had mandated employee attendance at meetings expressing views against unionization. This decision marks a significant…
-
Boeing Strike Highlights the Struggle for Retirement Security and Fair Compensation
Strikes are rare in the labor movement these days. Back in labor’s heyday in the mid-century, strikes were a common strategy used by unions and their members to extract improved wages, benefits, and working conditions from recalcitrant employers. But these days, with free trade agreements used as a threat by employers to shut plants…
-
From Reuther to Fain: Shaping the Past and Future of Workers’ Rights
As we approach Labor Day, it’s fitting to reflect on two pivotal figures in the history of labor: Walter Reuther and Shawn Fain. I first read about Reuther a couple of decades ago as I was embarking on my career in labor law. He was a visionary leader of the UAW who sought to protect…
-
Embracing AI in Legal Practice
I go to a legal conference every year to keep up with the latest in legal practice technology and to make sure I am doing everything I can do grow my business and serve my clients. A great boss that I had many years ago told me to always spend money on educating myself throughout…
-
Evolving Safety Standards
I was watching the news last night and there was a story about the toll the summer’s heat is taking on workers of all types this summer. Temperature extremes are nothing new in summer or winter, but recently summer temperatures have been creeping higher particularly in the sun belt states, and exposing workers to dangerous…
-
An Employer’s Guide to Addressing Workplace Harassment
I have a good friend who runs a small physical therapy business with about a dozen employees. Our conversations usually involve Mets baseball, being a dad, or current events. But yesterday he called me with a legal problem that he hoped I could help him with. Because he is a small business owner…
-
The Supreme Court and Union Protections
Last week, and the next two weeks, will be the weeks when the U.S. Supreme Court issues its most consequential decisions of the current term. The U.S. Supreme Court opens its term annually on the first Monday in October and closes at the end of June annually. Every June lawyers, legislators, commentators, and the…
-
America’s Asylum Paradox
Earlier this year I began digging into immigration and asylum jurisprudence as I tried to gain a better understanding of the issues surrounding the nation’s border policies, and the increase of illegal crossings of immigrants at the southern border. What I learned was that U.S. policy has been allowing immigrants who cross at a…
-
Consumer Data Responsibility
As I write this on Friday morning, news came out this day that sort of flew under the radar what with President Biden continuing to monopolize news and conversations about his fitness to be president over the next four years. (He’s not). Be that as it may, the story that caught my attention and…
-
Shifting Power From Agencies to Courts
The end of June always brings decisions from the U.S. Supreme Court on the most consequential cases of the term. Closing out the most recent term, the Court took some extra time into July before issuing its final three decisions. The most closely watched of course was the Court’s decision regarding presidential immunity for…
