Posts tagged captive audience meetings
Too radical or not radical enough? US’s top labor lawyer in the spotlight
August 8, 2022 // The top lawyer at the body charged with enforcing US labor law has been hailed as a champion by some and as a “radical” by her opponents. For others involved in the white-hot world of union organizing, she has not gone far enough. Abruzzo’s bona fides are clear. She has repeatedly urged the NLRB’s five-person board to adopt new policies that would make it easier to unionize. She wants the board to prohibit so-called captive audience meetings in which Amazon and many other companies require employees to listen to anti-union speeches from managers and consultants. She wants the board to require employers to grant union recognition once a majority of workers sign cards saying they want a union.
Unions Are Adding Some Heat in the Kitchen for Food & Beverage Employers
July 27, 2022 // Food and beverage employers can take some important steps before a union-organizing effort that may not be available once an organizing drive begins. First, employers may want to establish effective lines of communication with their employees, including the utilization of a complaint procedure that is practical and efficient. Fostering a positive work culture that treats all employees with dignity and respect is crucial for maintaining effective communication. Second, employers may want to review their employee handbooks and related policies, such as open-door policies, solicitation policies, confidentiality policies, etc., to ensure they are up-to-date and legally compliant. Lastly, employers may want to consider training supervisors to identify and responding to union organizing in a lawful manner. Training can help avoid unfair labor practice charges that could result in significant costs for employers. food and beverage industry
Opinion: AMERICAN WORKERS DESERVE BETTER FROM NLRB
June 15, 2022 // Recently, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) General Counsel announced the NLRB will issue charges asserting employers are violating federal law if they conduct informational meetings with their employees to discuss unionization. The GC’s pejorative characterization of these meetings as “a license to coerce” is as false as it is dangerous. These collaborative employer-employee meetings are very similar to meetings that employers routinely schedule during employees paid working time. These can include meetings about employee benefits as well as anti-discrimination and harassment training. Employees are no more “captive” in these meetings than they are in any other workplace setting. And in fact, employees want the information. EVAN ARMSTRONG, false promises, threats, coercion,
Apple retail workers in New York switch unions
June 10, 2022 // Apple retail workers at the Grand Central store in New York are unionizing with the Communications Workers of America (CWA) rather than Workers United as originally planned. The move is part of a broad organizing push at Apple retail stores across the country, where workers in Maryland, Georgia, and Kentucky have announced union campaigns. If any of the stores are successful, it will represent the first union of Apple employees in the United States. Lynne Fox, Anthony Viola, Deirdre O’Brien,
New NLRB Case Threatens Employers’ Rights to Counter Union Campaigns
June 7, 2022 // In addition, unions are generally permitted to engage in conduct during a campaign—such as making promises to employees about wage and benefit increases, and calling, texting, and visiting employees at home—that employers cannot. Since 1948, captive audience meetings have been repeatedly upheld by the Board as a lawful and legitimate exercise of employers’ free speech rights, but NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo appears poised to attempt to overturn this decades-long precedent. JD Supra, Daniel Strader
Apple union push faces setback as Atlanta organizers withdraw vote bid, citing alleged intimidation, rising Covid cases
May 30, 2022 // Earlier this week, Apple announced that it was increasing starting pay for retail employees to $22 per hour. In the message to co-workers, the Cumberland Mall organizing committee said that the unplanned raises were a direct result of its organizing drive.
The NLRB doesn’t want Amazon workers to know the truth about unions
May 23, 2022 // Freedom of speech, even harassment, is protected by the NLRB, it seems, if it's under the guise of a protest. But if an employer hosts a meeting for all staff to hear about the implications of unionization, that's not OK.
Connecticut: Lamont Inks New Employment Law Backed By Unions
May 19, 2022 // But the bill was marked as both hostile to employers and potentially illegal by the state’s largest business organization, the Connecticut Business and Industry Association. Following its passage through the legislature last month, CBIA president and CEO Chris DiPentima wrote to Lamont and encouraged him to veto it.
To Help Workers, Unions and Democrats Should Support Scott’s ERA
April 13, 2022 // The ERA’s policies are wildly popular. Recent polling shows that 70% of those polled – including 76% of individuals in union households – believe that workers should have the right to a secret ballot. Other major provisions – including the right to withhold dues from political spending, privacy protections, and the criminalization of union threats – poll at an average favorability of 70%.
NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo Issues Memo on Captive Audience and Other Mandatory Meetings
April 7, 2022 // National Labor Relations Board General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo issued a memorandum to all Field offices announcing that she will ask the Board to find mandatory meetings in which employees are forced to listen to employer speech concerning the exercise of their statutory labor rights, including captive audience meetings, a violation of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).