The seal of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is seen at their headquarters in Washington, D.C. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly
(Reuters) - The top prosecutor at the agency that enforces national labor laws announced on Thursday that she would move to overturn long-standing precedent that allows employers to force workers to attend anti-union meetings, seeking to blunt one of U.S. businesses’ most potent weapons against worker organizing.
The central argument is simple: The law on this issue has been misinterpreted almost from the beginning, and in a manner that undermines the basic underlying principles of labor relations law.
Jennifer Abruzzo, the National Labor Relations Board’s general counsel, said that she will urge the Democratic-led board to make it unlawful for managers to “corner” workers on the job or force them to attend so-called captive audience meetings.
Glenn Spencer, senior vice president of employment policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, told me the move is inconsistent with precedent and “an overreach.” Spencer questioned Abruzzo’s characterization of the meetings as naturally coercive.
The mandatory meetings “inherently involve an unlawful threat that employees will be disciplined” or retaliated against if they don't attend or if they leave -- and current law actually permits businesses to follow through on those implied threats, Abruzzo wrote. “That license to coerce is an anomaly in labor law, inconsistent with the Act’s protection of employees’ free...
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