Tami Essis Culkar has been a traditional labor lawyer for more than 20 years, representing private and public sector employers in collective bargaining, grievance arbitrations, unfair labor practices charges, strikes, representation matters and other litigation involving labor and employment law.
Tami is a skilled negotiator who bargains pro-employer collective bargaining agreements with a constructive and collaborative approach. She has spent more than 10,000 hours in traditional and interest-based bargaining. She has negotiated more than a hundred labor agreements covering industries including manufacturing, retail, construction, education, performing arts, logistics, cannabis, and hospitality. Clients turn to her for contentious negotiations, and she is known for helping them reach agreement without a strike. Drawing on her training in interest-based bargaining and growing up in a family-owned business, she negotiates client-centered agreements that support effective operations and improve employer-employee relations. Her practical and efficient approach allows her to help clients reach their goals while building lasting working relationships.
When union avoidance or litigation is needed, Tami brings deep experience before the National Labor Relations Board and California’s Public Employment Relations Board. She has handled representation petitions, union campaigns and elections, unfair labor practice charges, unit clarification and modification, work jurisdiction disputes, and impasse and fact-finding procedures. She has represented employers in grievance arbitration hearings, including binding and advisory arbitration, and in a lockout of striking workers. Throughout, she works to reduce clients’ risk and meet their business goals through cost-effective, pragmatic strategies.
Tami regularly counsels employers on a wide range of personnel management issues. These include contract compliance and grievance avoidance, leave administration, disability accommodation, discipline and termination, joint employer issues, and Colorado and California employment law compliance, including wage and hour matters. Her counseling covers Title VII, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), the Colorado Labor Peace Act and the Healthy Families and Workplaces Act. She also designs and delivers training programs on federal and Colorado employment law, labor relations, leave administration, accommodations, anti-harassment and anti-discrimination, the ADA interactive process, and board governance. Her years at the bargaining table and her understanding of human nature give clients practical guidance grounded in real workplace dynamics.
