Fisher & Phillips attorneys helped guide a manufacturing client through a strike during which the company was able to maintain production and ultimately remove the union from its plant.

In late January 2011, the Machinists Union called a strike against our client after the union’s membership rejected a recommended tentative agreement.  After a second tentative agreement also was rejected, our firm provided advice to the company on how to weather the strike, including the hiring of permanent replacements for the approximately 100 employees on strike.  We also assisted our client in its ongoing negotiations with the union during the strike, particularly in regard to formulating more aggressive bargaining proposals which were justified by the changed circumstances resulting from the strike.  Although the union filed numerous unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board accusing the company of bargaining in bad faith, the NLRB ultimately found that the company had bargained lawfully and dismissed all of the union’s charges.

Our attorneys also advised our client regarding the legal and practical issues involved in removing the union, and those efforts paid off in late October 2011 when the company received evidence enabling it to withdraw recognition from the Machinists Union.  Although the union, of course, contested this, we once again were successful in convincing the NLRB that the company had acted lawfully.  As a result, today our client’s plant is union-free and more productive than before the strike.