The General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board recently issued a memorandum, announcing that she will ask the Board to find that meetings at which employers express their views on union organizing are a violation of the National Labor Relations Act. Here’s why this could impede on free speech.

The General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), Jennifer Abruzzo, issued a memorandum on April 7 announcing that she will ask the Board to find that meetings at which employers express their views on union organizing are a violation of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). Should the Board accept her proposal, it would deliberately muzzle employers and restore a doctrine abandoned decades ago.

The General Counsel’s view is at odds with the NLRA and well-established Board and court precedents regarding the free speech rights of employers, as the General Counsel’s memo itself seems to suggest. In fact, the NLRA explicitly states that “the expressing of any views, argument, or opinion” about union issues does not constitute an unfair labor practice provided that it does not include threats of reprisal or promises of benefits.

Despite that provision, the General Counsel argues that Section 7 of the NLRA—a favorite subject of expansive interpretation during the Obama era—prohibits employers from requiring employees to convene to discuss union issues while on paid time or while performing their job duties. In both situations, the General Counsel opines that...

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