NLRB General Counsel Targets Anti-Union Meetings

Jennifer Abruzzo, General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), recently issued a memorandum declaring her intent to ban mandatory anti-union meetings in the workplace. Although NLRB case law has traditionally tolerated employer-mandated meetings whereby employees must listen to employer speech concerning union organizing, Abruzzo stated her belief that such meetings are “at odds with fundamental labor-law principles, [NLRB] statutory language, and [NLRB’s] congressional mandate.”

In her memorandum, Abruzzo states that she will submit to the NLRB a brief in which she will recommend that “the Board adopt sensible assurances that an employer must convey to employees in order to make clear that their attendance is truly voluntary.”

In 1941, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the National Labor Relations Act doesn’t prevent employers from expressing their views on labor issues, effectively preventing the NLRB from banning anti-union speech. However, the Court has also stated that certain kinds of speech could be considered coercive. The meetings Abruzzo is targeting have been considered legal under NLRB precedent since the 1940s.

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