NLRB counsel: Ban mandatory anti-union meetings

The general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board on Thursday issued a memo arguing that the widespread employer practice of requiring workers to attend anti-union meetings is illegal under federal law, even though labor board precedent has allowed it.

The general counsel, Jennifer Abruzzo, who enforces federal labor law by prosecuting violations, said her office would soon file a brief in a case before the labor board, which adjudicates such questions, asking the board to reverse its precedent on the meetings.

“This license to coerce is an anomaly in labor law, inconsistent with the act's protection of employees' free choice,” Abruzzo said in a statement, referring to the National Labor Relations Act.

In recent months, high-profile employers like Amazon and Starbucks, which are facing growing union campaigns, have held hundreds of meetings in which they have tried to persuade workers not to unionize by arguing that unions are a “third party” that would come between management and workers.

Amazon officials and consultants have repeatedly told workers in mandatory meetings that they “could end up with more wages and benefits than they had prior to the union, the same amount that they had, or potentially could end up with less,” according to testimony from NLRB hearings about a union election in Alabama last year.

The company spent more than $4 million last year on consultants who took part in such meetings and sought out workers on warehouse floors.

But many workers and union officials complain that these claims are highly misleading. Unionized employees typically earn more than similar nonunion employees, and it is highly unusual for compensation to fall as a result of a union contract.