Recent Developments

In the first week of April 2024, the United Steelworkers and SENA, Local 9158 secured two victories from the Department of Labor Relations (DLR) and Commonwealth Employment Relations Board (CERB) paving the way for representation of employees of the City of Boston.

Whatever your thoughts may be about the COVID vaccine requirements that sprang up during the height of the pandemic, one principle that remains clear is that employers were required to accommodate employees whose sincerely held religious beliefs prevented them from getting the vaccine unless such accommodation would cause an undue burden on the employer. On April 2, 2024, a neutral arbitrator determined that MassDOT failed to give proper consideration to potential accommodations for one such employee.

On February 2, 2024, an arbitrator ordered Wellpath Recovery Solutions to reinstate a Recovery Treatment Assistant at Bridgewater State Hospital who was fired without a full and fair investigation. Pyle Rome attorney Ian Russell represented 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East in the arbitration victory.

On February 26, 2024, a neutral arbitrator ordered that Boston Medical Center recognize 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East based on card check authorization for nurses at BMC's new behavioral health center in Brockton. Pyle Rome attorney Jim Hykel represented the Union in the arbitration proceeding.

Once again, the out-of-state right-wing anti-union extremists at the National Right to Work (for less) Foundation were no match for Pyle Rome attorney Alex Robertson and the Won't-Back-Down attitude of the leadership of UFCW, Local 1459. On February 26, 2024, Attorney Robertson and Local 1459 finally closed the door on an attempt to decertify a nascent bargaining unit of cannabis workers at the Berkshire Roots grow facility in Pittsfield, Mass.

The lawyers and staff of Pyle Rome are proud to announce that, on January 18, 2024, Pyle Rome partner Jillian Bertrand was sworn in as a member of the Advisory Council for the Massachusetts Department of Labor Relations. She was appointed to the position by Governor Maura Healey on January 12. The Advisory Council advises the DLR concerning policies, practices and other matters that may assist the DLR in discharging its labor relations duties.

A neutral arbitrator recently ordered the reinstatement of a cannabis worker who had been fired from the cultivation center where he worked. The case was brought by UFCW, Local 1445 and alleged that the company failed to follow due process principles when it fired the employee without giving him notice of its expectations or an opportunity to address the allegations against him. Pyle Rome attorneys Al Gordon O'Connell and Ian Russell represented the Union.

The publishers of the MLC Reporter, which collects and reports the cases handed down by the Department of Labor Relations and the Commonwealth Employment Relations Board, have asked Pyle Rome partner Jillian Bertrand to become the featured labor commentator for their quarterly publication -- offering the union perspective on new decisions from the DLR and the CERB.  Attorney Bertrand's first column appears in the July-September edition of the MLC Reporter and discusses the dividing line between unlawful strikes and permissible work actions as well as recent decisions regarding the obligatio

On August 4, 2023, the Commonwealth Employment Relations Board (CERB) reversed the findings of an investigator and ordered a hearing on allegations that the Town of Acushnet denied wage increases to an entire bargaining unit of employees in retaliation for their seeking union representation. Pyle Rome attorney Jill Bertrand is handling the case for the union.

On June 23, 2023, a neutral arbitrator handed SENA, Local 9158 another in an unbroken string of arbitration victories going back more than three years. The victory came in a dispute over out-of-grade pay -- a kind of case the Union has not lost in arbitration since at least 2016. Pyle Rome attorney Al Gordon O'Connell prosecuted the case for the Union.