Monday morning musings for workplace watchers
Easing a Standard? | In-Limbo Workplace Bills
Ian Kullgren: NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo has big plans for 2022, including a push to make it easier for workers to picket companies other than their employer, and ratcheting up fines.
In a little-noticed memo last week related to a case on remand from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, Abruzzo encouraged the board to loosen the standard for secondary picketing, a practice where union workers picket a company associated with their employer—a parts supplier or product distributor, for example—during a labor dispute.
Federal labor law restricts picketing when the target is a neutral third party, particularly when unions try to intimidate or coerce the company to cut ties with their employer. Abruzzo wants to loosen that standard.
In her memo, she urged the board to draw a distinction between secondary picketing and unlawful coercion—in essence, making the argument that secondary picketing isn’t always illegal. She said the board’s wide ban may violate the First Amendment, and that union assembly should be considered lawful “unless rebutted by clear and convincing evidence to the contrary.”
“What she’s trying to push is a more fact-intensive, case-by-case approach to secondary picketing,” said Jeffrey Hirsch, a labor law professor at the University of North Carolina.
Abruzzo’s recommendation could allow unions to expand their picket lines beyond their primary...
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