T: 415.248.2173
E: mgehrke@polsinelli.com
W: www.polsinelli.com
Michele Haydel Gehrke is an advocate for clients as she helps them face the complex web of workplace regulations and the potential for litigation. Currently serving as Chair of the firm’s Traditional Labor Relations practice, Michele focuses her practice on labor and employment counseling and litigation matters on behalf of management. She has successfully defended employers in various types of labor and employment disputes in state and federal court in both single-plaintiff and class-action cases. She has also second-chaired several trials.
Michele’s areas of focus include claims alleging:
- Harassment
- Retaliation
- Discrimination based on age, sex, race, sexual orientation, national origin,and disability
- Wage and hour violations, including claims under the California Labor Code, PAGA, and Fair Labor Standards Act
- Fair Credit Reporting Act and similar state law background check claims
- Family Medical Leave Act violations and similar state law leave claims
- Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act violations
- Whistleblower retaliation
- Trade secret misappropriation
- Breach of contract
Michele has significant traditional labor experience involving the Railway Labor Act. She has successfully defended airline employers in major and minor disputes under the RLA, and has experience negotiating collective bargaining agreements on behalf of carriers. Michele recently won an appeal at the 9th Circuit involving a RLA hybrid claim for breach of contract against a major legacy carrier and breach of the duty of fair representation against the union which was successfully dismissed at the pleading stage. She also counseled a major legacy airline on an organizing drive involving its unrepresented passenger service work group and litigated the resulting dispute with the National Mediation Board. Michele also has expertise in labor relations in the bankruptcy context, and successfully second chaired a trial in the bankruptcy court on behalf of Aloha Airlines as it sought to renegotiate its labor contracts and terminate its pension plans.
Michele also has significant experience with the National Labor Relations Act. She has successfully represented employers in union organizing drives, strikes, unfair labor practice charges, labor arbitrations and litigation involving the National Labor Relations Board. She also has experience advising employers on union avoidance issues, and has successfully represented unionized employers in defending breach of contract and employee termination claims at arbitration.
Last updated October 2018.
