Labor & Employment Law
Clients’ Demand for Labor Law Training Is Surging
Posted Apr 8, 2009, 01:46 pm CST
By Sarah Randag
In line with expert predictions from last fall, corporate law firms and consulting companies say labor-related inquiries from employers have risen in recent months over fears of rising union influence in the Obama administration, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Meat packer Tyson Foods Inc., which has a 60 percent nonunion workforce, hired Howard L. Bernstein, a partner at Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg in Chicago, to brief them on pending Employee Free Choice Act legislation, which would allow workers to establish a union without a secret-ballot election. Bernstein didn’t reveal his fee, but told the Wall Street Journal that consultants typically charge between $1,500 and $2,500 for a two- to four-hour training session.
Also, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis is planning to substantially increase the number of investigators in the Wage and Hour Division to crack down on violations of wage and child labor laws.
"What we've seen already from the administration are some very pro-labor initiatives, and we anticipate those kinds of things will continue. Employers need to be very vigilant," said Chad Richter, a partner in the Omaha, Neb., office of Jackson Lewis, which merged this month with Berens & Tate.
Richter said demand for Berens & Tate’s union-awareness training sessions—for which the firm charges $2,000 to $6,000—has doubled in the past six months.