Labor Relations – Management

Our Labor Relations practice group counsels, advises, and represents unionized and non-unionized companies in developing corporate-wide, multi-facility labor relations strategies. We negotiate collective bargaining agreements and represent our clients in contract administration, grievance handling, arbitration, strike consultation, and National Labor Relations Board and court proceedings. We also work with clients to develop communication strategies and proactive initiatives that encourage positive employee relations, helping employers lawfully avoid unions. We serve clients ranging from Fortune 500 companies and large private equity-backed businesses to not-for-profit institutions and cultural centers. We represent clients in numerous industries, including manufacturing, healthcare, higher education, building services, cargo, early childhood education, aerospace, waste management, construction, the arts, and transportation.

We understand what it means to have a union and the challenges a union can pose to achieving your mission and goals.  Each member of our team is committed to learning your business and ensuring that your labor relations strategies align with your business goals and operational objectives.  We understand how collective bargaining agreements are interpreted and the impact of those terms, and we bring that understanding to our clients when we negotiate and draft collective bargaining agreements, as well as when we advise on their administration.

We have received a national ranking in the area of Labor Law – Management from Best Law Firms^® since 2020. Natale DiNatale, the chair of our Labor Relations Group has been ranked in Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business in the State of Connecticut in the area of Labor & Employment since 2020. He has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America^© in the area of Employment Law - Management since 2014 and in the area of Labor Law - Management since 2021.

Our Services

We provide advice and representation on the full spectrum of labor relations, including union avoidance. Our services include:

• Communication strategies and other initiatives that encourage positive and direct employee relations
• Negotiation of collective bargaining agreements that coincide with operational objectives
• Contract administration
• Grievances and arbitration
• Union organizing campaigns and elections
• Unfair labor practice claims, including National Labor Relations Board and court proceedings
• Labor disputes, including strikes, picketing, lockouts, and corporate campaigns
• Labor relations strategies that integrate operational objectives
• Transactions, including purchases and sales, mergers, consolidations, relocations, divestitures, and subcontracting
• Multi-employer pension fund liability and other employee benefits issues

Our Team

Our team of labor lawyers has extensive experience representing management in all aspects of labor relations. As part of a full-service law firm, our Labor Relations team provides seamlessly integrated legal services by collaborating with colleagues throughout our firm’s diverse practice and industry groups, including:

• Business Transactions
• Construction
• Manufacturing
• Environmental, Energy + Telecommunications
• Governmental Relations + Lobbying
• Health Law
• Education
• Employee Benefits
• Immigration
• Litigation
• Tax + Exempt Organizations

Our Labor Relations practice group provides valuable legal services to our clients to help attain their business and management objectives.

Experience

• Successfully negotiated adjunct faculty contract well in advance of contract expiration and avoiding threatened picketing during high-visibility weekend.
• Counseled numerous employers on plant closure, relocation, and accretion issues.
• Represented and counseled health care employer during a successful decertification petition and election campaign involving a SEIU local union.
• Prevailed in grievance arbitration involving the discharge for cause of a long-time SEIU delegate.
• Have served as chief spokesperson and lead negotiator in hundreds of collective bargaining negotiations that have involved numerous issues, including the termination of defined benefit retirement plans.
• Successfully defended company in labor arbitration against a claim that the Union had the right to take union stewards away from work for Union business without notice to or approval from the company.
• Assisted manufacturing client in the successful decertification a 30-year bargaining relationship with the International Association of Machinists.
• Assisted a formerly municipal Water Pollution Control Authority with labor relations issues, including supervisory issues resulting from difference between municipal and private sector labor law.
• Prevailed in labor arbitration regarding contract interpretation and involving the discipline of two employees who left work early because the Union claimed that the collective bargaining agreement established a maximum workweek.