Posts tagged NLRB
Starbucks anti-unionization case brought by NLRB narrowed by US appeals court
September 9, 2026 // Circuit Judge Stephen Higginson said statements about the hiring portal and store hours were not "threats of reprisal" because a hiring pause didn't appear to imperil employees' job security, while understaffing might have justified shorter hours. He also said store manager Carmella Neri's statements that she knew about unionization discussions and that employees should keep in mind the impact of a successful vote were not coercive, saying the statements were not "out of the ordinary."
Opinion: The Teamsters Return to Ugly Type
September 9, 2026 // Video footage we’ve seen shows Teamsters blocking a motorcyclist who worked for an Amazon contractor from entering the facility. The worker circled around and tried to bypass their blockade, but in the process knocked down two protesters and crashed on his bike. Teamsters then beat him up as he lay on the ground. The motorcyclist and the two protesters who were knocked down were hospitalized. It may have been imprudent for the worker to try to circumvent the protesters, but he was trying to make a living by showing up for his job.
Editorial Board: Americans approve of unions. They just don’t want to join one.
September 9, 2026 // Gallup says 71 percent of Americans approve of labor unions, near a record high. The Bureau of Labor Statistics says 10 percent of American workers are in labor unions, near a record low. What gives? The first issue is that Gallup wasn’t asking whether respondents wanted to join a union themselves. In 2022, Gallup found that unions had the same approval rating as they do this year, but it also asked nonunion workers how interested they were in joining.
Union endorsements cross party lines in Mont. federal races
September 8, 2026 // Democratic candidate Sam Forstag and Republican Aaron Flint — both competing for the 1st Congressional District — signaled they support collective bargaining rights for public and private workers. This position is similar to Montana U.S. Senate candidates independent Seth Bodnar, Democratic candidate Alani Bankhead and Republican Kurt Alme. Forstag, Flint, Bodnar and Alme have union endorsements.
Micheal Alcorn: What the new NLRB majority should do for workers like me
September 8, 2026 // Federal law guarantees workers the ability to hold elections, both to unionize and to remove unions through decertification. But under the Biden administration, the NLRB handed union officials the power to delay decertification elections. All a union has to do is file a charge alleging the employer violated federal law somewhere along the way, and the vote stops in its tracks. The workers’ right to a decertification election is simply taken away. Workers who signed their names asking for the vote are made to watch as their petition sits idle. Meanwhile, the blocking charge winds through investigation and litigation — a process that can drag on for years. The union that workers wanted to remove stays in place the entire time.
Biden’s NLRB stole workers’ secret ballot. It’s time to give it back
September 8, 2026 // It’s hard to overstate how harmful — and insulting — the Cemex decision has been to workers. Before the Biden-era NLRB handed down this decision, unionization elections typically followed a straightforward process. Unions kicked things off by convincing workers to sign cards in support of unionization. The union then presents the cards to the employer, demanding that management recognize the union via “card check” or hold a secret-ballot election.
L.A. Mayor Karen Bass sends letter to USC president urging administration to drop appeal and allow faculty to unionize
September 7, 2026 // Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass told USC President Beong-Soo Kim she was “concerned” by their move to ask the National Labor Relations Board to evaluate whether university faculty had a right to form a union in a letter Sept. 1.
Opinion: Biden made poor labor choices. I had a front-row seat.
September 5, 2026 // With three Republican votes, the NLRB is well positioned to address these — and many other — poor decisions that have exacerbated the board’s backlog. I know from experience that there will never be a quiet docket. But I also know that the number of open claims will shrink further if the board restores standards that are grounded in law and common sense. The NLRB already has the cases to overturn the board’s old rulings. It has the authority. Now it has the votes — and the duty to act.
Starbucks dress code didn’t violate NYC workers’ labor rights, appeals court rules
September 4, 2026 // The New York-based 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals said the National Labor Relations Board failed to properly balance Starbucks' ability to present its preferred image to customers with its workers' rights to encourage unionizing.
Labor Board Decision Rules Region Wrongly Tossed Out McDowell County Employees’ Union Decertification Votes
September 3, 2026 // Board Chairman James Murphy and Member Scott Mayer ruled that the Region 9 Director erred by dismissing Reeves’ decertification petition and refusing to count the ballots from a decertification election held in July 2024. The Board majority found that the Regional Director had simply repeated unproven, settled unfair labor practice allegations against the Commission as the stated basis for dismissal, without making any independent finding, as required by precedent, that Reeves’ petition was actually tainted by direct employer involvement.