NLRB GC Pushes for Card Checks, Limits on Employer Speech. Last week, National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo filed a brief in a case asking the Board to make dramatic changes to federal labor law. The most significant potential changes relate to the following issues:
Employer speech. As the Buzz recently discussed, the general counsel issued a memorandum to regional directors on employee attendance at mandatory workplace meetings. In last week’s brief, the general counsel formally asked the Board to rule that mandatory employer meetings that discuss the pros and cons of unionization with employees are unlawful because they “inherently involve a threat of reprisal to employees for exercising the protected right to refrain from listening to such speech.”
Card check. The general counsel also asked the Board to reinstate a doctrine—abandoned more than 50 years ago—that would allow a labor union to organize via card check, unless the employer can demonstrate its “good faith doubt” as to the union’s majority status. In determining whether the employer has acted in good faith, the general counsel urged the Board to “consider all relevant circumstances, including any unlawful conduct of the employer, the sequence of events, and the time lapse between the refusal [to recognize and bargain with the union] and the unlawful conduct.” According to the brief, an employer’s lack of good faith “would include situations in which the employer’s reason...
In January of 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice reported a record-breaking year for False Claims Act recoveries, with the vast majority related to healthcare. What the DOJ report does not captu...