Last week the Connecticut Bar Association’s Labor & Employment Law Committee held an informational breakfast with the NLRB to discuss the NLRB’s proposal to make Hartford (Region 34), a subregion of the Boston office (Region 1). 

Nick Zaino, the CBA Committee chair, forwarded these highlights as to why the consolidation is very likely going to become reality:

  • The overall NLRB caseload and the number of NLRB employees is down by about 50% from the 1970s
  • A “normal size” region generally process between 700 and 1000 cases annually
  • There are a number of regions–approximately 10–that are considered small regions, including Hartford. Hartford currently processes around 450-500 cases
  • The NLRB has been evaluating the possibility of making smaller regions subregions as vacancies occur at the Regional Director level
  • The NLRB looked at consolidating the Boston and Hartford regions when the Boston Regional Director, Rosemary Pye, announced that she would retire
  • Under the proposal, Jonathan Kreisberg would become the Regional Director of the combined Boston and Hartford regions with his main office in Boston
  • There are no planned reductions in personnel in the Hartford NLRB office, although the Boston and Hartford offices could look to consolidate positions as vacancies occur through attrition
  • John Cotter will be the officer in charge of the Hartford office, but there will be no change to his job duties
  • There should not be any significant changes to the investigation or case handling process
  • The consolidation of the Boston and Hartford offices would not become effective until notice is published in the Federal Register
  • The anticipated date for the consolidation is October 1, 2012.