Last month, a newly constituted National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) took a wintry flurry of actions that has begun a much anticipated re-leveling of the playing field between Big Labor and Corporate America in the aftermath of profound pro-union actions under the prior administration. On the heels of an instructive memorandum issued by the Board’s new general counsel, the NLRB raised questions about the 2014 “quickie” election rule and issued a number of decisions setting forth more neutral standards for analyzing significant legal issues under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), including:

• Circumstances under which multiple should be deemed “joint employers”; • The legality of workplace rules that do not expressly prohibit concerted activities protected by the NLRA; • Appropriate collective bargaining units; • An employer’s ability to take unilateral action consistent with its past practices; and • An administrative law judge’s ability to accept a charged party’s proposed settlement terms.

New General Counsel Memorandum