The following article was first published on Wolters Kluwers’ VitalLaw website. It is reposted here with permission.
A cadre of national and Connecticut business interests have sued in federal district court to invalidate the state’s recently-enacted law banning an employer from talking about unions (and other topics) at a meeting where employee attendance is required, a so-called “captive audience” meeting.
The plaintiffs contend the law violates the constitutional guarantee of free speech and is preempted by the National Labor Relations Act. The plaintiffs have very credible legal arguments.
Connecticut’s Act Protecting Employee Freedom of Speech and Conscience makes it illegal for an employer to threaten to or actually discipline or discharge an employee “on account of such employee’s refusal to (A) attend an employer-sponsored meeting with the employer or its agent, representative or designee, the primary purpose of which is to communicate the employer’s opinion concerning religious or political matters, or (B) listen to a “speech or view communications the primary purpose of which is to communicate the employer’s opinion concerning religious or political matters.”
The definition of “political matters” includes topics “relating to … the decision to join or support any … labor organization.”
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