AP&S Helps Employer Resume Its Business, Secure Favorable Collective Bargaining Agreement and Eventually Become Union-Free

The Challenge:

When a steel fabricator shut down its operations for more than 18 months due to its inability to negotiate a collective bargaining agreement with the union representing its steel fabricators, AP&S was engaged to assist the company with negotiating an agreement that would allow it to reopen its business.

The Solution:

Robert P. Brooks, AP&S’ Managing Partner and Chair of its Labor & Employment practice group, was able to negotiate an agreement with the union that all but three bargaining unit members from a bargaining unit of over 20 employees would be terminated and negotiated an entirely new collective bargaining agreement with much more favorable management rights language and lower wages and employee benefits.

The Result:

After the terms agreed to by the union were presented to the three remaining bargaining unit members, those employees also resigned, resulting in the employer’s ability to hire an entirely new workforce. That workforce recently voted in an NLRB sanctioned decertification election to remove the union as its representatives, resulting in a union-free workplace.