The National Lawyers Guild Labor & Employment Committee [L&EC] serves as a liaison between the Guild, organized labor and various labor and employment legal groups. Click here to jump to meeting information.
PARTNERS. We collaborate with the AFL-CIO Lawyers Coordinating Committee [LCC], the National Employment Law Association [NELA], and other professional associations on the national and local level. Click here for the NELA website.
We also work closely with and support the Guild's Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice to improve conditions in poor and working communities. Click here for the Sugar Law Center website.
Other non-profit employment law groups who provide specialized legal advice include Workplace Fairness, the Government Accountability Project (whistleblowers), and the National Whistleblower Legal Defense & Education Fund.
DUES. Annual dues are $25 for attorneys and $15 for law students, legal workers, union members and other friends. This is a national membership fee - there is no separate local membership fee. Make your check payable to the NLG L&EC. Send it to Fran Schreiberg c/o Kazan et al., 171 - 12th Street 3rd floor, Oakland, CA 94607. Click here to download a membership form.
EVENTS. The national committee sponsors an event at the AFL-CIO LCC each spring, programs at the annual NLG Convention (usually in the fall).
JOIN US. Click here to download a membership form.
LEADERSHIP. For more information about the L&EC, contact co-chair Polly Halfkenny at polly.halfkenny@ranknfile-ue.org or call her at (412)471-8919, or co-chair Dean Hubbard at dhubbard@slc.edu or call him at (914) 395-2410. For membership or newsletter inquiries, contact Fran Schreiberg at FSchreiberg@kazanlaw.com or call her at (510) 302-1071.
LEADERSHIP - EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. The executive committee is in touch via email about day to day decisions. Members include: Claudia Davidson, Polly Halfkenny, Joan Hill, Marielena Hincapie, Dean Hubbard, Joe Lipofsky, Fran Schreiberg, Henry Willis, Robert Willis.
LEADERSHIP - STEERING COMMITTEE. The steering committee sets general policy for the L&EC at the two annual meetings and via email. Members include: Tim Belcher, Doug Bonney, Barbara Collins, Angela Cornell, Claudia Davidson, Bryan Decker, Mark Fancher, Richard Griffin, Polly Halfkenny, Barbara Harvey, Michael Healey, Joan Hill, Marielena Hincapie, Dean Hubbard, Ursula Levelt, Joe Lipofsky, Elizabeth McLaughlin-Haddis, Robert Metcalf, Jeanne Mirer, Jerome Paun, Arthur Read, Fran Schreiberg, Marilynn Mika Spencer, Mark Stern, Jeff Vogt, Henry Willis and Robert Willis.
MEETINGS. We meet nationally twice a year at the annual AFL-CIO Lawyers' Coordinating Committee meeting (usually in May) and at the annual NLG Convention (usually in the fall).
Click here for the Agenda for our meeting on April 26, 2007, at the AFL-CIO LCC in Chicago. Click here for the minutes.
Click here for the Agenda for our meeting on October 19, 2006, at the NLG Convention in Austin, TX. Click here for the minutes.
Click here for the Agenda for our meeting on May 1, 2006, at the AFL-CIO LCC in New Orleans, LA. Click here for the minutes.
Click here for the Agenda for our meeting on Oct 27, 2005, at the NLG Convention in Portland OR. Click here for the minutes.
Click here for the Agenda for our meeting on May 25, 2005, at the AFL-CIO LCC in San Francisco, CA. Click here for the minutes.
MEMBERS. L&EC members' areas of practice or concentrations include, among other things:
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Economic Rights (including unemployment insurance);
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Employment Law (including sexual harassment, age discrimination, wage and hour, etc.);
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Injured Worker Law (including occupational safety & health law, workers compensation, third party lawsuits for injured workers, disability rights & social security); we also have members who do tort cases involving personal injury and wrongful death as well as class actions related to workers and who represent workers and communities concerned with toxics in the workplace and community; and
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Labor Law (we work in many sectors of the progressive labor movement).
IF YOU PRACTICE in any of these areas, please consider joining our committee.
Click here to download a membership form.
NEWSLETTERS. The L&EC publishes a newsletter twice a year to coincide with the annual AFL-CIO Lawyers' Coordinating Committee meeting (usually in May) and the annual NLG Convention (usually in the fall). If you would like to contribute an article, contact Fran Schreiberg. Click here for our newsletters.
WORK - LOCAL ACTIVITIES. We promote local committees who work with their local labor movement contacts and on labor and employment law issues. We focus locally on issues that members define as relevant. We have active local committees here:
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San Francisco Bay Area - click here for more information
WORK - NATIONAL ACTIVITIES. Our national activities have included the following:
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Anti-war activities: We provide support for labor anti-war activities.
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Criminal (mass) defense: We support the labor movement's efforts to defend workers engaged in mass actions, including helping to draft a mass defense manual and conduct training for AFL-CIO LCC attorneys.
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Economic rights: We support various living wage campaigns, fights against sweatshop labor, increasing the number of women in the trades, assuring farmworker rights, etc.
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Electoral activities: We support the labor movement's electoral efforts, including recruiting attorneys to assure fair elections and helping to draft the AFL-CIO LCC's election law manual.
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Immigrant workers: We support labor and employment attorneys who represent immigrant workers, including co-writing an Immigration manual for labor and employment attorneys designed to assist them understand the immigration issues that attend their labor and employment work. The manual is available for a donation of $25. Click here for our Immigrant Workers' Rights webpage.
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International labor issues: We co-sponsor an annual labor and employment educational seminar in Cuba. We support the work of the International Commission for Labour Rights (ICLR) and participate in delegations to monitor labor issues in other countries. We support the International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL) and participate in conferences and other activities. We support other efforts to strengthen ties with progressive labor and employment attorneys throughout the world. Click here for our international labor issues webpage.
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Union campaigns: We support labor struggles to unionize workers and have been involved in helping graduate students to unionize, among other campaigns.
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Worker centers: We support efforts to strengthen the ties between labor and worker centers throughout the country. Click here for our Worker Center webpage.
Guild Guide to Labor Law- Valuable Asset to Labor Law Practitioners and Union Representatives
The National Lawyers Guild Labor & Employment Committee publishes the Employee and Union Member Guide to Labor Law, which now runs to three volumes and covers topics as diverse as the ADA, the FLSA, ERISA, bankruptcy and whistleblowers' rights, as well as bread-and butter labor law issues, such as the right to strike and the duty to bargain. The Guild has always prided itself on producing a manual for activists: we not only approach the issues as lawyers for unions and employees would, but focus on those strategies and tactics that have proven to be useful in defending workers' rights.
Everyone who visits our website should own this treatise: you simply cannot find this scope of coverage, with its focus on workers' rights, anywhere else.
To order, visit the West on-line store at www.westgroup.com and enter employee and union in the product search box or call (800) 344-5009.
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