Speaking at the American Bar Association’s 12th Annual Labor and Employment Law Conference, National Labor Relations Board Chairman John Ring touted his affinity for rulemaking and hinted at more to come, including possible regulations for union/employee access to employer property.

He is quoted as saying, “Candidly — and this is just my view — but the Board has been doing rulemaking through case adjudication . . . .Why don’t we just be honest and do rulemaking the way we’re supposed to do rulemaking?”

Potential changes in rules for union quickie elections and other employer-friendly actions also look likely under Ring’s leadership.

Read more about it here.

The 116th Congress will again become a divided Congress on January 3, 2019. House Democrats will rule their chamber for the first time since 2010 and Senate Republicans added to their majority though they are still short of the 60‐vote threshold necessary to move most legislation.

What can we expect in this new era? My thoughts on the matter can be found here: Executive Memo 13Nov2018 (PDF will open in a separate window).

The National Railway Labor Conference (NRLC) announced this week that Brendan Branon will replace current Chairman Kenneth Gradia when he retires on January 1 after 34 years.

Branon, who most recently held a position as Delta’s managing director of labor and employee relations previously served as the principal negotiator, attorney and company spokesman for Delta Air Lines’ domestic labor unions. He has also been associated with the law firm Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP in Washington, DC.

Branon will be the seventh chairman since the freight railroads formed the conference in 1963. Read more about his appointment here.

11,000 UPS Freight workers could go on strike Monday morning. The workers, who are represented by the Teamsters Union, have been voting on a new contract since November 7. Votes will be tallied on Sunday, and if the negotiated contract does not pass, a strike is expected. The last UPS strike in 1997 lasted 16 days and involved 185,000 workers.

Although UPS Freight, where multiple companies share truck shipping space, differs from the UPS small packages unit most customers use, a UPS Freight strike could still impact holiday pricing and scheduling.

Read more about the potential strike here.

The US Department of Labor is expected to issue new regulations that would require the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teacher state affiliates to file detailed financial disclosure reports.

As expected, the NEA intends to challenge the regulations, as they did under President Bush. Although a DC Court eventually ruled against the NEA after a long legal battle last time, the Obama administration rescinded the rule.

To read more about the expected regulation, check out the Education Intelligence Agency’s article here.

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) announced on September 13th that it would publish a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to their joint-employer standard. The proposed rule would define an employer as a joint-employer only if it “possesses and exercises substantial, direct and immediate control over the essential terms and conditions of employment and has done so in a manner that is not limited and routine.”

Public comments are invited on the new rule with NLRB Chairman John F. Ring stating, “I look forward to receiving the public’s comments and to working with my colleagues to promulgate a final rule that clarifies the joint-employer standard in a way that promotes meaningful collective bargaining and advances the purposes of the Act.”

Read the official press release here.