Labor Management Relations
Unlike many employment defense firms, Nilan Johnson Lewis maintains an active labor relations practice. We negotiate collective bargaining agreements, interpret them, and defend management in grievance arbitrations. And we have successfully defended numerous unfair labor practice charges, running the gamut from claims of discriminatory discharge, to unilateral subcontracting, to unlawful surveillance of social media.
Our success in complex labor matters includes assisting in implementation of drug testing policies, handling multiple related grievance arbitrations, and managing common situs picketing matters, including the use of reserved gate systems and control of area standards, consumer, and organizational picketing. We assist employers in structuring labor relations policies and practices, transactional due diligence, and the avoidance of successorship, joint employer, and alter ego determinations in the context of corporate formation or acquisition. Nilan Johnson Lewis’ team also has extensive experience training management in effective union avoidance techniques, performing audits of union organizing activities, responding to organizational campaigns and elections, and designing other union-prevention measures.

Mark J. Girouard
Shareholder & Co-Chair, Labor & Employment
- Advice for Employers: NLRB McLaren Macomb Decision
- Nilan Johnson Lewis Receives Women-Owned Business Certification
- Nilan Johnson Lewis Adds Corporate Immigration Law Expertise to Its Labor and Employment Law Practice
- DOL Announces Pay Thresholds for Overtime Exemption
- NLRB General Counsel Proposes Significant Change to Arbitration Agreements and More
- Employers Are Walking the Tightrope Between Maintaining a Civil Work Environment and NLRA Compliance
- Beating the Curve on Predictive Scheduling Laws