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For several years now, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) has been disavowing any pretension that it is an “intermediary” between labor and management. Instead, the new NLRB has firmly tipped the scales in favor of organized labor. This has clearly impacted all employers, as the NLRB has increasingly exerted its power over unionized and non-unionized employers alike.
This past week, NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo issued a memorandum to all Regional Directors outlining her “prosecutorial priorities.” That memo identifies numerous Board precedents that she feels merit “Board reconsideration” because they are either “contrary to Congressional mandate” or “improperly compromise the statutory rights of workers.” If you run a business, you need to take notice because it is clear that the Board’s new “priorities” do not include your best interests.
For example, the NLRB is actively seeking to overturn established precedent including, among other things:
- Prohibiting employers from enforcing employee confidentiality
- Prohibiting employers from requiring employee waiver of reinstatement in settlement agreements
- Prohibiting employers from enforcing arbitration agreements
- Expanding the circumstances under which employers must “open their books” and make financial documents available to unions
- Allowing unions broader access to other sensitive employer information
- Expanding the legal and financial obligations due from successor entities
- Curtailing the union decertification process
- Allowing unions more leeway to strike
- Establishing terms and conditions of employment employers must offer replacement workers
If you have not already, I strongly urge you to understand where the new Board is headed, and how it impacts your business. Once you become a target, it will be too late.