We have vast experience dealing with labor unions in organizational campaigns, collective bargaining, strikes, and grievance arbitration.  Our long-standing prominence in the area enables us to deal effectively with both the National Labor Relations Board ("NLRB") and labor unions.  We counsel employers on union avoidance measures and collective bargaining strategies, in preparing bargaining proposals, in grievance and arbitration proceedings, and with respect to charges and petitions before the NLRB.

We have advised and represented clients in many aspects of collective bargaining, including the association engaged in collective bargaining on behalf of the major ports and carriers on the West Coast; one of the largest American-flag ocean carriers in a successful effort to restructure and rationalize its relationships with longshore and deep-sea unions; and a major manufacturing company in a strike that resulted in a change of the workforce from union to non-union status.  We have negotiated collective bargaining agreements as chief negotiator for a major steel company while in bankruptcy; served as counsel to several different airlines in negotiations with pilots, flight attendants, and mechanics unions; and represented the U.S. Postal Service and a large Southern California utility in union negotiations.  We have assisted in the negotiation of one of the largest collective bargaining agreements in the country, and represented that client during a strike by more than 200,000 employees.  We have negotiated numerous project labor agreements for companies engaged in large construction projects.  We have also represented employers in interest arbitrations to determine new contract terms.  During the  summer of 2003, we won a $2 million dollar arbitration for Southern California Gas Company on the issue of whether a pay grade increase of a certain job classification based on a job evaluation study had to be retroactive under the applicable collective bargaining agreement. 

We have represented employers in connection with union organizing campaigns and NLRB representation proceedings in voting units of up to 7,000 employees, and have extensive experience representing employers defending equal employment claims brought by members of a unionized workforce.

Publications

Gibson Dunn lawyers have authored numerous articles and papers addressing labor-management relations, including:

• William J. Kilberg, Statement before the Dunlop Commission on the Future of Worker Management Relations (February 24, 1994).
• Kenneth W. Anderson and Eugene Scalia, Electromation and DuPont:  The Plot Thickens, presented to American Bar Association (February 1994 Meeting).
• Scott A. Kruse, Giveback Bargaining:  One Answer To Current Labor Problems, Personnel Journal (1983).