October 20, 2021
ATTORNEY SPOTLIGHT ALEJANDRO DELGADO joins SSDS as a Partner
Schwartz, Steinsapir, Dohrmann & Sommers (“SSDS”) is proud to announce Alejandro Delgado as the firm’s newest partner. Alejandro is the latest hire in the firm’s strategic expansion. Prior to coming to SSDS, Alejandro was a partner at a respected California labor law firm, Weinberg, Roger & Rosenfeld. “Alejandro’s history of traditional labor union representation and activism make him a natural fit for the firm,” says Henry Willis, SSDS partner. “He approaches litigation as a scholar and an organizer.” For the past seven years, Alejandro has represented private and public sector Unions, their members, and workers in various legal practice areas, including cases in federal and state courts, administrative hearings before the NLRB and PERB, grievance and arbitration, and other labor and employment litigation. In 2019, Delgado won a groundbreaking appeal holding that the “home rule doctrine” does not exempt charter cities from California’s minimum wage laws and requiring charter cities to pay their workers the minimum wage under state law. He has also developed expertise in assisting Unions and workers with workplace immigration issues, including litigation, bargaining with employers over immigration issues, developing contractual rights and language, developing internal policies and procedures, preparing for workplace enforcement, and I-9 audits and compliance, etc. Before becoming an attorney, Alejandro received undergraduate degrees in History and Latin American Studies at Colgate University and master’s degrees in History at Yale University. At Yale, he studied 20th-century labor, civil rights, and immigration struggles across the United States and Latin America and organized graduate students and other workers as a member and organizer in the Graduate Employees and Students Organization. In law school, he clerked at the Workers’ Rights Clinic, ACLU of Southern California’s Immigrant Rights Project, the East Bay Community Law Center’s Welfare Law and Policy Clinic, the Legal Aid Society-Employment Law Center’s Immigration and National Origin Program, Weinberg, Roger & Rosenfeld, and externed for the Honorable Marsha Berzon. Alejandro’s practice currently includes representing private and public sector unions and workers before federal and state courts, federal and state administrative agencies, in grievance and arbitration proceedings, and other labor and employment matters, including workplace immigration issues. Alejandro is a member of an immigrant family and is fluent in Spanish. Delgado is also active in the legal community. He is a member of the National Lawyers Guild’s Labor & Employment Committee, the Mexican American Bar Association, and California Rural Legal Assistance, Inc.’s Board of Directors. When the rigors of legal practice are not inducing enough adrenaline, Delgado enjoys mountain and gravel biking, as well as hiking. He is an avid soccer fan. Delgado roots for LAFC locally, but you might also find him cheering on several other teams in different leagues.
INTERNATIONAL ALLIANCE OF THEATRICAL STAGE EMPLOYEES’ (“IATSE”) MEMBERS SET TO RATIFY AGREEMENT
On Saturday, October 16th, IATSE and the Alliance of Motion Pictures and Television Producers (“AMPTP”) reached a tentative three-year agreement for The Basic and Videotape Agreements which affects 40,000 film and television workers represented by 13 West Coast IATSE local unions. IATSE members must still approve the proposed agreement. On October 3rd, nearly 90% of eligible IATSE guild members cast a ballot authorizing the union to go out on strike by an overwhelming majority of 98%. This resounding vote could have led to the first nationwide strike in its 128-year history--and for good reason: the below-the-line workers are getting squeezed more than ever to keep up with the insatiable demand of the industry, which is fueled in part by the proliferation of streaming platforms. The rest of the industry guilds offered strong showings of support for IATSE’s potential strike, in what can only be described as foreshadowing for their next round of negotiations. SSDS stands in solidarity with all IATSE members, including our clients, IATSE affiliates Motion Pictures Editors Guild, Local 700 and the Animation Guild, Local 839, which will bargain separately later this year.
PERB ORDERS THE CITY OF GLENDALE TO REINSTATE FIRED WORKERS, PAY ENTIRE UNIT YEARS OF BACK PAY
A long-running and bitter legal battle, dating back to when the City of Glendale laid off union activists and imposed a 1.75% across-the-board salary reduction on all its utility workers after declaring a false impasse, finally ended this September. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the decision of the Public Employment Relations Board, which ordered the City to compensate all workers for the salary cut, immediately cease and desist from using subcontracted or other non-bargaining member work in the unit, and reinstate sixteen employees. The City must take these actions because it laid off utility workers and subcontracted and transferred their work without meeting and conferring with IBEW Local 18, and because it imposed new terms and conditions of employment when no good-faith impasse in negotiations existed. Both actions violated the Meyers-Milias-Brown Act. SSDS attorneys Bill Heine and Daniel Curry represented IBEW Local 18 during this litigation.
MIDWEST CENTER FOR INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING SHEDS LIGHT ON WORKING CONDITIONS FOR OKLAHOMA MEATPACKERS
Investigate Midwest journalist Madison McVan details the unsafe working conditions at a Seaboard Foods meatpacking plant in Guymon, Oklahoma. Workers represented by UFCW Local 2 have filed two OSHA Complaints with the help of SSDS attorneys who represents the Local in federal labor matters. Earlier this year, SSDS attorneys Margo Feinberg and Melanie Luthern discussed the regulatory hurdles facing meatpacking workers in a bulletin for the Union Lawyers Alliance. Members can read it here.