Informal Breakfast with NLRB Regional Director - (Part I) What's Going On
The Connecticut Bar Association's Labor & Employment Section sponsored an informal breakfast with NLRB (Region 34) Regional Director Jonathan Kreisberg earlier today to talk about various issues in the labor arena. (Also in attendance were John Cotter, Deputy Regional Director and Terri Craig, Supervisory Attorney). 
It was a terrific session with lots of substantive and useful information. In fact, there was so much substance out of it, that I'm going to break my recap up into various posts for the rest of the week.
Today, I'll focus on a few happenings around the Connecticut office and some region-specific information.
First, the Connecticut region released its "NLRB News", a newsletter chock full of notable items. You can download a copy here. It includes a very helpful professional staff roster with phone numbers and e-mail addresses.
Second, Kreisberg indicated electronic filing would be used more frequently in the region as the year progressed and that mandatory e-filing would occur later this year. For employers, that means both preservation of data, but also making sure that the information is readily accessible via computer.
Third, Kreisberg indicated that the office will be moving to the federal office building at 450 Main Street in Hartford in approximately May 2010. This move has been in the works for some time but it will give the office a needed upgrade.
Fourth, Kreisberg indicated that his office will also be hiring another field attorney in 2010 to be able to handle more cases and litigate them. Already in 2009, the budget situation for the office has improved, so much so that they did their first hire since 2001 -- a new field examiner named Andrew Starr.
Lastly, the Region has -- for some time -- referred up to 5 cases a month out to the Buffalo NLRB region for investigation because of a lack of resources in this region to handle the caseload. Kreisberg indicated that may come to an end with the hirings last year and this year.
Much of the information discussed at the issue was contained in the newsletter referenced above but in upcoming posts, I'll talk about some of the changes being discussed at a national level, as well as some of the trends that the NLRB has been seeing lately with regard to employer rules.
My thanks to the NLRB for its willingness to engage the bar association in this area and for providing useful information that will ultimately help both practitioners but their clients as well.
