“Unions & Other Labor Issues: A Discussion” with Mark Furman of Tarlow Breed Hart & Rodgers

Jeffrey (0s):
Hello, everybody. Welcome back to radio entrepreneurs. My name is Jeffrey Davis and we consistently stream stories of entrepreneurship and how people are dealing with chaos in this economy and change every week we like to speak with Mark. Furman a director and partner at the law firm of Tarlow, Breed, Heart, and Rodgers entrepreneurship in the law. I’m going to be joined today by my producer, Nathan Gobes welcome back, Mark.

Mark (24s):
Hello, Jeffrey and Nathan. Great to be with you.

Jeffrey (27s):
Yeah. Thank you, Mark. You know, Mark you enough to turn on the news every day. There’s just things that affect business every single day.

Mark (35s):
Well, there really are. And we’re coming into that time of the year where the United States Supreme court renders many decisions that impact not just business, but society, people. And we, we saw it yesterday that there was a leak of a draft decision of the row versus a case that is may overturn Roe vs. Wade, which has been philosopher of the land for 50 years approximately.

Mark (1m 17s):
And so, you know, it’s never happened before that in, in my lifetime that I’m aware of that a decision was leaked it’s from February. So it doesn’t necessarily mean that that’s the final decision, but it is incredible to me that this leak occurred. And, you know, that’s certainly a, one of the most consequential decisions of this term for the Supreme court when it comes out. But there are other decisions too, which I think it makes sense for us to, to follow.

Mark (2m 2s):
And some of them, even when they don’t directly deal with business issues have relevance actually. So, you know, we’ve talked from time to time about the first amendment, freedom of speech and, and religion and association. And yesterday important decision came out a unanimous decision against the city of Boston, which had denied a permit to a Christian organization relating to flags at city hall and interesting that all nine judges on the Supreme court found that Boston’s a refusal to grant.

Mark (2m 57s):
The permit was a violation of the first of, of the first amendment. And, you know, we’re, we’re seeing this Supreme court, religious rights is a consistent theme. We’ve seen it in the various mandates and the need to have religious exemptions to some of the COVID mandates. And I, and I do think that the majority of, of the court that’s going to continue, but here the Boston case, they’re making, you know, this part of the city available to other speech, but they weren’t making it available to a religious speech.

Mark (4m 0s):
And, you know, they don’t have to make it available Flint flying of flags or whatever, but if they’re going to make it available, they cannot leave out religious organizations. So it just, it really, it really shows you the power of this aspect of the first amendment. And so, you know, from the employer perspective, you got to look at, you know, are you treating folks who have strong religious convictions?

Mark (4m 42s):
I, I, you respecting those, you know, that seems to be an important, an important part of the legal analysis right now, when you know, the first amendment it’s, it’s the first amendment to the constitution. It’s, it’s, it’s a very important amendment. And I obviously it’s, it’s fundamental. What’s allows us to get on our soapbox and express ourselves against things that we think are outrageous, whether the political figures or policies and, you know, we don’t get arrested for it.

Mark (5m 33s):
It’s a wonderful thing. And, but there are limits to it. And I think in, I think it’s worth talking about some of those limitations. In other other times, we get together that do limit what speech business owners can are subject to and how they may be liable for things they say. So I think focusing a little bit on the first amendment might be a useful thing for business owners.

Jeffrey (6m 15s):
Well, you know, what I’m seeing from my perspective is that, is that the voice of labor of employees, of staff, about what they believe their rights are, is getting stronger. And employers are having to get a lot more sensitive to listening to requests from employees, staff, people of specific, you know, origins or backgrounds, but also labor. And, you know, management is hypersensitive to not get themselves into a problem. They don’t want a problem.

Mark (6m 56s):
Yes. And it’s hard to avoid problems because

Jeffrey (7m 3s):
Just to add context, it’s a tough economy is inflation. There’s a war there’s COVID, there’s supply chain issues. There’s staffing issues. There is over, you know, and employers are under a lot of pressure and it’s very easy under a lot of pressure to say and do things that you may regret afterward and not realize you’re doing it at the moment. So there’s, there’s these it’s like this, like a S two storm is coming up against each other.

Mark (7m 33s):
Yes. And the, you know, labor shortage, coupled with the flexibility for many folks in terms of where they work, it just really changes the environment. I mean, look, it’s interesting. The change, you see you at Starbucks, right. But you know, Starbucks under attack for anti-union activities. Whereas in the past Starbucks at least had a reputation as a very progressive employer, but you know, you got fierce union activities and, and criticism of it’s a CEO for the third time it’s founder for, you know, I think promising benefits for non-union stores that, that compared to union stores.

Jeffrey (8m 41s):
And he has a put a stake in the ground to defend himself, which is going to be interesting. So you have non-union shops getting benefits, which I understand. And then union shops not getting the same benefits. And I’m sure that that does not help. They’re wanting to pledge get pledges. So you’re looking at the two groups or we’re going to again,

Mark (9m 8s):
And, and look, what’s going on with Twitter also with the Elon Musk, purchasing Twitter in what the feelings that people have about it, that, that he may allow folks who aren’t on Twitter, like former president Trump, who were taken off Twitter by the prior ownership. And you know, what does that mean? And, you know, this goes back to the first amendment stuff that we started with Jeffrey.

Mark (9m 49s):
It’s just, you know, who should be allowed to speak, what should they be allowed to say, how do you deal with information that you think is misinformation? You know, all these issues are really hot in our, in our society.

Jeffrey (10m 9s):
Well, Mark, I hope we can continue to talk about this every week, because I think it’s really relevant to business all these trends going on, what’s going on for everybody. Very topical Roe vs. Wade, you know, union non-union rights speaking. If somebody were looking for you with tele breeder, Hart and Rogers, corporate attorney, looking for advice on how to stay safe and navigate these times, how would they find you?

Mark (10m 37s):
I can be reached at M Ferman, F U R M a n@tbhr-law.com or 6 1 7 2 1 8 2 0 2 5.

Jeffrey (10m 51s):
And now is, and it was Mark Fermin, entrepreneurship and the law. Thank you very much, Mark. And we look forward to talking to you again next week.