Robert A. Blackstone

Bob Blackstone counsels clients on strategic labor and employment law problems, including labor relations planning, executive employment and separation agreements, noncompetition and trade secret matters, and issues regarding technology in the workplace. Bob has substantial experience defending employers in litigation and arbitration, and is a chief collective bargaining negotiator for clients in the retail, food processing, cable and broadcast television industries.

Bob's clients include: Bank of America, ConocoPhillips, Diebold, KIRO-TV, MulvannyG2 Architecture, Novell, Pan Pacific Hotels, Premera, Providence Health Systems, REI, Starbucks, Virginia Mason Medical Center and Whole Foods Market.

Practice Highlights

• Successfully managed opposition to a union organizing campaign in a technical unit of 90 employees; employer prevailed by 2:1 margin
• Successfully negotiated new collective bargaining agreements for a large commercial printing company and for two plants of a major frozen food processor, including wage freezes and increased employee contributions to health care costs
• Assisted a multinational employer in resolving a difficult sexual harassment complaint involving a high-level executive in a foreign office
• Counseled an employer regarding difficult labor and employment issues in a complex corporate restructuring
• Successfully mediated several significant executive employment disputes
• Successfully negotiated the resolution of multiple whistleblower and discrimination claims made by the general counsel of a major financial institution, avoiding threatened litigation
• Negotiated difficult and complex separations of the long-term president of a major health care institution and the CEO of a publicly traded technology company
• Handled multiple labor arbitrations for a Fortune 100 company
• Successfully resolved multiple collective bargaining contracts for employers in various industries, including food processing, transportation, and food service, including establishing for the first time an employee obligation to contribute to health care costs