Craig S. Schwartz

Over the course of his decades in practice, Craig Schwartz has gained extensive experience representing clients in administrative proceedings and litigation before the National Labor Relations Board, Michigan Employment Relations Commission, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Michigan Department of Civil Rights, and in state and federal courts in Michigan, Minnesota, and Illinois.

Possessing a lengthy record of prevailing for clients, Mr. Schwartz counts among recent successful results representation of large state university and health care clients in matters where he secured favorable outcomes resulting in published decisions, including where a private hospital system affiliated with a public health system remained a private-sector employer subject to the National Labor Relations Act; where a union’s repudiation of a no-strike clause and engaging in an illegal strike was determined to be an unfair labor practice under the Michigan Public Employment Relations Act; where a collective bargaining agreement permitted negotiation of salary, teaching workload, and other terms of employment directly between the University and individual faculty member without involvement of the faculty union; and obtaining summary disposition dismissing an unfair labor practice charge of alleged contract repudiation.

Craig Schwartz is a Shareholder based in Butzel's Troy office. He is a member of the Labor and Employment Section of the American Bar Association and the Employment Law Section of the State Bar of Michigan. Mr. Schwartz was an Adjunct Professor of Labor Law and Collective Bargaining in the College of Business Administration at The University of Detroit Mercy in 2019. He was an Adjunct Professor of Law at the Ave Maria School of Law where he taught collective bargaining from 2006 to 2009.

Mr. Schwartz served as a member of Detroit Mayor Dave Bing's Crisis Turnaround team in 2009, focusing on labor relations and human resource issues. He has been recognized by several prestigious publications as among the top lawyers in Employment and Labor Law, including The Best Lawyers in America® and Michigan Super Lawyers.

All Related Practice Areas

Education

Georgetown University Law Center, J.D.

Boston University, B.A.

Admissions

Memberships

• American Bar Association - Labor and Employment Section
• State Bar of Michigan - Employment Law Section

Awards & Recognitions

The Best Lawyers in America® - Employment Law - Management, Labor Law - Management, 2024-2027; Litigation - Labor and Employment, 2026, 2027

DBusiness Top Lawyers in Metro Detroit - Labor and Employment Law

Michigan Super Lawyers - Employment & Labor, 2014-2020

American Lawyer Media - Top Rated Lawyer, Labor & Employment Law

Successfully negotiated more than 100 collective bargaining agreements in multiple industries

Regularly represents employers in representation and unfair labor practice proceedings

A partial list of significant published decisions in the representation of management clients includes:

University of Michigan, 2024 MI ERC LEXIS 18 (2024) - Private hospital system affiliated with a public health system remained a private-sector employer subject to the National Labor Relations Act

Graduate Employees Organization and the University of Michigan, 37 MPER 7 (2023) - Union’s repudiation of no-strike clause and engaging in an illegal strike was an unfair labor practice under the Michigan Public Employment Relations Act

Eastern Michigan University, 33 MPER 27 (2019) - Collective bargaining agreement permitted negotiation of salary, teaching workload and other terms of employment directly between University and individual faculty member without involvement of faculty union

Eastern Michigan University, MERC Case Do. C18U-105 (2019) - Summary disposition granted dismissing unfair labor practice charge of alleged contract repudiation

Oakland County, 31 MPER 53 (2018) - Summary disposition granted on unfair labor practice charge alleging a failure to bargain regarding subcontracting of unit work

City of Detroit, 30 MPER 55 (2017) - Consent Agreement under emergency management statue suspends a public employer's duty to bargain

Salvation Army, NLRB Case No. 7-RC175722 (2016) - Exempt status of religious organization under the NLRA

Oakland Community College, 2010 MPER (LRP) LEXIS 75 - Employer not required to bargain before instituting changes in a non-mandatory subject of bargaining

Michigan Technological University, 2007 MPER (LRP) LEXIS 36

Hollingsworth Management Services, 342 NLRB No. 50 (2004) - Employer entitled to second NLRB election based upon electioneering and coercion of voters by pro-union employees in the polling area

Dean & Deluca New York, Inc., 338 NLRB No. 159 (2003) - Voters in classifications included in NLRB election stipulation cannot subsequently be challenged by a union as statutory supervisors

Oakland County, 2001 MPER (LRP) Lexis 81 - Michigan public employees do not have a right to use employer e-mail systems for union or protected activities unless access is permitted for other non-business purposes

Cole v. West Side Auto Employees Federal Credit Union, 229 Mich. App. 638 (1998) - Arbitration award has preclusive effect on subsequent employment discrimination action

Neubacher v. Globe Furniture Rentals, Inc., 205 Mich. App. 418 (1994) - Elimination of plaintiff's position precludes continuing economic damage claims in employment discrimination cases

Gourmet Foods, Inc., 270 NLRB 578 (1984) - NLRB may not issue a bargaining order without a finding of union majority status