Altshuler Berzon LLP represents international, statewide, and local labor unions in litigation before state and federal courts, administrative agencies, and arbitrators. Our practice includes traditional areas of labor law (for example, representation and unfair labor practice cases, grievance arbitrations, contract enforcement, reporting and disclosure, defense against liability suits, and internal union governance), as well as a wide variety of public policy issues (for example, representing labor unions on voting rights, environmental, health and safety, economic inequality, unemployment insurance, and First Amendment law). We conduct collective bargaining negotiations for labor unions, and also provide them with legal advice and analysis, including with regard to organizing, collective bargaining, legal compliance, and pending and potential legislation.
Representative matters:
- Secured California Court of Appeal decision overturning trial court injunction striking down statutory tenure, dismissal, and layoff protections for California teachers on state constitutional grounds, and secured denial of review by California Supreme Court.
- Obtained declaratory and injunctive relief on behalf of United Airlines pilots requiring the airline to comply with California’s Kin Care law, which requires employers that offer paid sick leave to allow employees to use up to half of that leave to care for ill relatives.
- Obtained a California Supreme Court order vacating, and a subsequent Court of Appeal decision reversing, a court of appeal opinion that had required a union to arbitrate non-waivable statutory claims brought on behalf of its members; on remand, obtained writ requiring a school district to place its teachers on the correct steps on the salary schedule and to provide more than $3 million in back pay and interest.
- Prevented the State of Hawaii from privatizing a Maui public hospital prior to expiration of the collective bargaining agreement covering the public employees at the hospital, by obtaining an injunction from the Ninth Circuit and then a negotiating resolution.
- Obtained an injunction under the Contract Clause of the U.S. Constitution against the implementation of a Michigan statute that would have nullified an existing collective bargaining agreement covering thousands of homecare workers.
- Obtained a writ of mandate overturning a school district’s mass layoff of public school teachers out of seniority order.
- Obtained a ruling that a national aluminum manufacturer violated the National Labor Relations Act by unlawfully locking out 3,000 of its employees and must pay them approximately $175 million in back wages, which was at that time estimated to be the highest backpay award in the history of the Act.
- Obtained numerous arbitration awards overturning employee discipline without just cause, ordering reinstatement of discharged employees, protecting union members’ healthcare benefits, and enforcing pay and other contract provisions in collective bargaining agreements.
- Assisted unions in contract negotiations in numerous industries, including health care, building trades, public employment, and transportation.
A more extensive description of our victories on behalf of labor unions can be found on our Firm Resume.