Keith Bolek serves as the General Counsel of the Operative Plasterers’ & Cement Masons’ International Association of the United States and Canada, AFL-CIO. Mr. Bolek also works as the lead organizing counsel of the United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry of the United States and Canada, AFL-CIO. In addition, he serves as principal counsel for local unions whose members work as cement masons, communications workers, electricians, government employees, HVAC technicians, plasterers, plumbers, pipefitters, sprinklerfitters, stagehands, ticketsellers, and treasurers.
Mr. Bolek advises and represents unions in federal and state court, as well as before the Department of Labor, National Labor Relations Board, the Federal Labor Relations Authority, and the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights. During his career, Keith Bolek has represented a union who joined together with other unions to defend federal employees’ rights to bargain collectively and to protect employees’ due process rights in cases such as AFGE v. Rumsfeld and NFFE v. Trump. Mr. Bolek also litigated a seventeen-year unfair labor practice case against CNN America, from the filing of the charge in 2003 to the negotiation of a settlement in 2020 that resulted in the payment of $76 million in back pay to hundreds of discriminatees. That payment still stands as the largest monetary remedy in the history of the National Labor Relations Board.
In his current roles, Keith Bolek advises and represents international, intermediate, and local unions in every aspect of their mission, working with these unions as they organize the unorganized, negotiate collective bargaining agreements, and enforce the many labor and employment laws that govern the workplace. In particular, Mr. Bolek works with a team of lawyers advising and representing the United Association and its affiliates in numerous organizing campaigns across the United States. Mr. Bolek also advises and represents unions with respect to their internal union governance, including reporting and disclosure, trusteeships, nominations and elections, conventions, and fiduciary matters. In addition, he regularly provides training and guidance to union officers, representatives, and organizers on all of these subjects.
Keith Bolek is a member of the bars of Maryland and the District of Columbia, and he is admitted to practice in those jurisdictions. Mr. Bolek is also admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court, as well as several United States Courts of Appeal and United States District Courts. He also serves on the AFL-CIO’s Lawyers Advisory Panel and is a member of the AFL-CIO’s Union Lawyers Alliance.