By John Alan Doran Over thirty-five years ago, the NLRB held that an employer may not prohibit a union organizer’s access to an employer’s privately owned, but publicly accessible areas, such as an employer’s public restaurant or cafeteria, unless the organizer engages in “disruptive” conduct. A long line of subsequent Board decisions confirmed this rule. […]
Category: Union Issues
Outrage No Substitute for Relevance
By Patrick Scully The NLRB General Counsel’s Division of Advice recently rejected a union’s claim that it was entitled to receive financial data regarding an employer’s intended use of government largesse resulting from the federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (“TCJA”). The employer had announced plans to use some of the tax benefit to pay […]
NLRB GC Leashes Pavlov’s Dog
By: Patrick Scully NLRB General Counsel Peter Robb this week directed his staff not to object when an employee, who is trying to decertify a union, moves to intervene in a related unfair labor practice case. Typically, when employees try to decertify the union that represents them, the union’s Pavlovian response is to file a […]
Facebooking Misappropriated Employer Form Is Not Protected Activity
By Chance Hill On June 11, 2018, the National Labor Relations Board (Board) Division of Advice applied the Board’s new Boeing standard for assessing employer policies. The Division advised that an employer did not violate the NLRA when it discharged a pro-union employee who Facebooked a form that was “improperly taken” from a team leader’s […]
The Changed NLRB Reasonably Defines “Change”
By Patrick Scully The new National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or “Board”) reversed another Obama Board decision on Friday. In Raytheon Company, 365 NLRB No. 161 (December 15, 2017), the Board returned to long standing precedent that the question of whether an employer has made a “change” should take into consideration the employer’s standing practices. […]
Racist Picket Conduct Protected
By Bill Wright The NLRB holds – famously now – that sexist and racist conduct on a picket line is protected from adverse action unless the conduct is also violent and coercive. Despite a shot across its bow in Consolidated Communications, Inc. v. NLRB, (D.C. Cir. 2016), the Board continues to force employers to ignore […]
Epic NLRB Benchslap
By John Doran An agreement between the UFCW and the Fred Meyer grocery store chain restricted the union’s ability to visit with store employees in public view. But things went south when the UFCW declared war on Fred Meyer. Some eight union representatives showed up at a Fred Meyer store and began disrupting business and […]
OSHA Dumps Crocodile Dundee Rule
By Pat Miller and John Alan Doran You may recall from the Crocodile Dundee movies that Dundee was a big fan of walkabouts in the Australian outback…and Manhattan. A while back OSHA began encouraging walkabouts of a sort. Back in 2013, OSHA issued its infamous “Fairfax memo”, which concluded that non-union employees could designate a union representative or […]
Persuader Rule Permanently Benchslapped
By John Alan Doran Today a federal judge entered a permanent injunction preventing the DOL from implementing its so-called “Persuader Rule”, which created substantial disincentives for the use of persuaders and attorneys during a union organizing campaign. National Federation of Independent Business, e al. v. Perez, No. 5:16-cv-00066-C (N.D. Tx. Nov. 16, 2016). We previously […]
NLRB Classifies TAs as Employees
By Bill Wright The NLRB chose not to interfere with collegiate football. Northwestern University, Case 13-RC-121359 (August 17, 2015). Collegiate teaching assistants, though, are another thing. In Columbia University, Case 02-RC-143012 (August 23, 2016), the Board reversed another established precedent to assert that teaching assistants (“TAs”) are “statutory employees” and may choose to have union […]