On July 24, 2025, William B. Cowen, the Acting General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or “Board”), issued GC Memorandum 25-08 to the Board’s 26 regional offices providing guidance on determining if an employment applicant in the salting context is protected by the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA” or the “Act”). While not binding law, GC Memorandum 25-08 indicates a policy priority for the agency’s line prosecutors in union salt cases.

Background

The NLRB defines “salting” as “the act of a trade union in sending a union member or members to an unorganized jobsite to obtain employment and then organize the employees.” Toering Electric Co., 351 NLRB 225, 225 fn. 3 (2007) (citations omitted).

Salts have conditional protection under the NLRA as prospective “employees” – meaning, employers cannot typically refuse to hire or to consider to hire salt applicants, unless the salt applicant engages in conduct with the intent to provoke employers not to hire them or indicate a desire not to be hired. The public policy is to balance a union’s right to organize with an employer’s concern that the Board’s salting rules could “be too easily used for the private partisan purpose of inflicting substantial economic injury on targeted nonunion employers.”

Acting NLRB GC Guidance on Salting Cases

According to the Acting NLRB GC, here’s the framework for analysis as to whether an employer violated the Act by refusing to hire (or considering to hire) a salt applicant:...

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