Posts tagged Jennifer Abruzzo
NLRB’s Top Prosecutor Seeks Big Changes, Faces Uphill Battle
June 28, 2022 // Abruzzo has signaled it’s one of the many decisions she intends to undo from the Trump era, when cases were spearheaded by her predecessor Peter Robb, who was widely seen by organized labor and Democrats as favoring employers. Biden later fired Robb. “The hypocrisy is off the charts when you think about the employee rights,” Nix said. “When she gets done with the job, she ought to apply for the lobbyist job at the AFL-CIO, because she’s going even farther than union officials have even imagined.” John Logan, San Francisco State University, pro-union experts,
Foxx, Burr, Allen, Braun Call NLRB to Account for Curbing Employers’ Freedom of Speech
June 27, 2022 // Today, House Education and Labor Committee Republican Leader Virginia Foxx (R-NC); Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Republican Leader Richard Burr (R-NC); Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee Republican Leader Rick Allen (R-GA); and Employment and Workplace Safety Subcommittee Republican Leader Mike Braun (R-IN) sent a letter to National Labor Relations Board (NLRB or Board) General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo regarding guidance that flies in the face of decades of precedent and threatens employers’ First Amendment rights.
Biden Administration Seeks to Limit Employer Speech to Aid in Union Organizing
June 24, 2022 // Recently, leading officials in the Biden administration have taken steps to prevent employers from sharing their lawful views on collective bargaining in order to aid union efforts to organize more employees. These actions range from encouraging employers to refrain from discussing unions with employees, to seeking to prohibit any discussion about unions with employees while they are working. If the National Labor Relations Board ("Board") implements the administration’s actions, it would make it significantly harder for employers to oppose union organizing campaigns and make it easier for employees to organize.
Congress thwarted Biden on unions. Or did it?
June 24, 2022 // “One of the biggest problems with this DOL is its obvious union favoritism,” the top Republican on the House Education and Labor Committee, Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), said at a hearing this month. “This department has bowed low enough before union bosses to taste dirt. How many times has the Biden administration’s DOL kowtowed before union bosses instead of standing up for workers?” From installing former union official Marty Walsh as Labor secretary, to outfitting the National Labor Relations Board with union alums, to issuing a spate of union-friendly executive orders, the White House has taken significant steps toward expanding union membership despite the challenges presented by a narrowly divided Congress. Steve Rosenthal, Rep. Donald Norcross, Shane Larson, Communication Workers of America, Kate Bronfenbrenner, Doug Parker, Alice Stock, Lauren McFerran, Bobby Scott, Nick Niedzwiadek
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,
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
Workers Start Union Push at Trader Joe’s in Massachusetts
May 18, 2022 // Even though unionization by Trader Joe’s workers at the start of the pandemic failed, labor conditions have changed under the Biden administration and National Labor Relations Board General Counsel Jennifer Abbruzzo, said O’Brien, the Boston College professor. “She's much more pro-union and that's going to work in favor of the Trader Joe's workers," she said.
Democrats Say Secret Ballot for Me, Card Check for Thee
May 17, 2022 // Instead, unions want to organize employees via “card check,” a coercive process whereby organizers confront employees individually and relentlessly, at work and at home, until they sign a petition card. If the union can collect cards from half of the workforce, it gets certified without a vote.
Biden’s personal recovery plan: Pump up unions, squeeze Big Business
May 13, 2022 // The president is hoping his political fate — and the Democrats’ standing among the white working class — can be saved by lifting up organized labor.
NLRB stretches its wings under Biden’s appointees
May 10, 2022 // What Biden may ultimately hang his hat on are his appointments to the National Labor Relations Board, where, in addition to swinging the board back to a Democratic-appointed majority, Biden booted GOP General Counsel Peter Robb and put in Jennifer Abruzzo.