John E. Duke
Counsel
John Duke helps employers of all sizes across the spectrum of industries in the full panoply of labor and employment matters, with a particular emphasis in helping employers navigate complex labor relations issues and resolve challenging union problems. He is board-certified in labor and employment law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. He brings deep experience managing union campaigns, labor litigation and collective bargaining efforts to find practical, creative solutions that protect employers’ interests.
John works with employers to build effective labor relations strategies. When employees engage in protected concerted activity or employers face bargaining and contract issues, John structures lawful responses, assesses contract costs and develops negotiation plans. He provides strategic options to handle:
- Compliance issues including permissible policies, practices and work rules
- Union solicitation, organizer and employee access, and employee communications
- Union election petitions, bargaining unit accretion and clarification petitions, and decertification petitions and elections
- Transfer and outsourcing of bargaining unit work, reductions in force and consolidations, including effects bargaining
- Strike and lockout negotiations, replacement recruiting and contingency planning
Experience
- Managed labor matters, acquisitions and restructuring following a national media firm’s spinoff from a large telecommunications company.
- Obtained injunctions in state and federal courts against unions to restrain unlawful conduct during a strike on behalf of multiple employers.
- Obtained the overturning of the results of a union election from the National Labor Relations Board based on the supervisory status of the unions’ primary advocates.
- Negotiated collective bargaining agreements on behalf of employers in the telecommunications, hospitality, entertainment, construction, healthcare, and environmental maintenance industries.
- Secured dismissal of state and federal law wage and hour claims against a hospital network by its unionized nurses as preempted/precluded by federal labor law.
- Obtained dismissal of state law invasion of privacy claims against employer as preempted by federal labor law.
- Enforced an international non-compete/non-solicitation agreement between employer and former managing director.