NLRB Bans Anti-Union 'Captive Audience' Meetings

LOADING ERROR LOADING Federal labor officials issued a ruling Wednesday prohibiting employers from holding mandatory anti-union meetings at work, a long-sought policy objective of unions that want to level the playing field with corporations in organizing campaigns. In its 3-1 decision, the Democratic majority of the National Labor Relations Board said such workplace gatherings — often called “captive audience” meetings due to their obligatory nature — tend to “coerce” employees and therefore violate the law. NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo, an appointee of President Joe Biden, has argued that the meetings violate workers’ rights when employees have no choice but to attend and subject themselves to the company’s messaging. The board ruled that such meetings “have a reasonable tendency to interfere with and coerce employees in the exercise” of their rights, including “whether or not to unionize.” The law “does not license employers to compel employees, on pain of discipline or discharge, to attend meetings where they are forced to listen to the employer’s views,” the majority wrote. A new general counsel and Republican-led board would also be able to overturn the ban on captive audience meetings and other key rulings made by their Democratic predecessors.