Matthew Gauger
Shareholder

Email: mgauger@unioncounsel.net
Telephone: 916-443-6600

Education:
University of California, Davis, 1988
University of California, Santa Cruz, 1984

Matthew Gauger is a shareholder in Weinberg, Roger and Rosenfeld’s Sacramento office. Mr. Gauger represents labor unions in all matters before State and Federal courts, administrative agencies, in collective bargaining negotiations, and grievance arbitrations. Mr. Gauger’s primary interest is using the law in non-traditional ways. This includes aggressive litigation to assist organizing, creative avoidance of the National Labor Relations Board, suing employers who cheat their employees out of wages, employers who do not pay the legally required rates to employees, employers who perform construction work without the appropriate contractor licenses, and generally forcing employers in the industrial, construction, service, and public sectors to comply with the law. Mr. Gauger has a very active practice before the Public Employment Relations Board. Mr. Gauger represents several clients against the State Personnel Board in SPB’s current Jihad against the labor movement over arbitration of state employee discipline. Mr. Gauger also defends unions in duty of fair representation, discrimination cases, and successfully uses California’s SLAPP to defend unions from secondary boycott allegations.

Mr. Gauger is a member of the Executive Committee of the Labor and Employment Section of the California State Bar, and chairs the 2006 Public Employee Conference.

Mr. Gauger earned his law degree from University of California, Davis, in 1988 where he was an editor on the Law Review. Mr. Gauger received his undergraduate degree from University of California, Santa Cruz, where he graduated with honors with a double major in Politics and Legal Studies in 1984. Mr. Gauger’s previous employers include California Correctional Peace Officers Association (CCPOA) Legal Department from August 1989 to June 1996, and United Farm Workers, AFL-CIO, in 1984-85. Mr. Gauger's other interests include politics, skiing and co-driving a performance rally car on the US Pro-Rally Circuit where he won first place co-driver in his class in the Pacific Northwest Division in 2003, 2004 and 2005, and the Western States Rally PG and Class Co-Driver Championship in 2004, 2005 and 2006.

Practice Areas:
Labor Arbitrations and Collective Bargaining Negotiations
Class Actions and Wage and Hour Litigation
Employment Discrimination
Draft and Defend Legislation and Regulations
Enforcing Labor Standards on Public Works Projects
Public Sector