Recent Developments

In the first few months of 2018, Pyle Rome attorneys have assisted UFCW, Local 1445 in overturning three separate discharge decisions at Stop & Shop. Pyle Rome attorney Al Gordon O'Connell is the General Counsel of Local 1445, and his partners Tod Cochran and Ian Russell handled the cases at arbitration.

On April 6, 2018, an arbitrator sustained the grievance of IAFF, Local 1268 and held that the Town of Randolph violated the Fire Fighters' contract when it upended a decades-old practice of paying out a full year's worth of longevity and educational incentives to retiring firefighters. Pyle Rome attorney Al Gordon O'Connell represented the Fire Union and won the case at arbitration.

An interest arbitration panel, including a neutral professional and a management representative, has ordered an increase in fire apparatus staffing for at least one Town of Chelmsford fire station, preferably headquarters. Matt Reddy, a District Vice President of the Professional Fire Fighters of Massachusetts, served as the labor representative on the panel. Attorneys Leah Barrault and Mark Macchi represented the Chelmsford Fire Fighters, IAFF Local 1839.

On February 23, 2018, the Vermont Supreme Court held that collective bargaining negotiations are not "meetings" within the meaning of the Vermont Open Meetings Law and that a public body may not force a union to negotiate in public. The case represents a major victory for public sector unions in Vermont and a set-back for the Vermont School Boards Association, which has been attempting to undermine teachers' unions by forcing them to negotiate in public.

On January 12, 2018, a neutral labor arbitrator reinstated a Stop & Shop employee represented by UFCW Local 1445 who had been terminated for selling cigarettes to a minor as part of an FDA sting operation. Pyle Rome attorney Tod Cochran represented the Union at arbitration.

Public employees found to have engaged in criminal misconduct do not merely face the loss of their job (and health insurance), they also face the prospect of losing a pension that they have contributed to for years, if not decades.

According to an independent arbitrator's ruling, Northeastern University failed to offer a course to a longtime, qualified faculty member represented by SEIU Local 509, thereby violating a collective bargaining agreement. Attorney Patrick Bryant represented Local 509 throughout the arbitration process.

The Village of Bellows Falls has violated multiple sections of the Vermont Municipal Employee Relations Act for laying off all full-time fire fighters and replacing them with a full-time chief and on call firefighters, or so alleges a new complained issued by the Vermont Labor Relations Board. Patrick Bryant has represented Local 4473, IAFF, and Professional Fire Fighters of Vermontin this proceeding.

On December 12, the National Labor Relations Board, the federal agency charged with overseeing private sector labor disputes and elections, announced that it plans to revise the rules governing the formation of unions. The majority of the five-member Board are GOP/business representatives; two are Trump appointees. And the General Counsel, who investigates and prosecutes labor act violations, was appointed by Trump.

The dedicated firefighters/paramedics of the Town of Oak Bluffs are one step closer to justice, after a Department of Labor Relations investigator today issued an 11-count complaint against the Town. The complaint stems almost exclusively from the alleged tyrannical behavior of Fire Chief John Rose. Attorneys James Hykel and Patrick Bryant have represented the IAFF Local throughout this process. Meanwhile, the Town has spent about $50,000 of taxpayer monies to defend its Chief.