California’s ‘captive audience ban’ law hit an appeals court wall:
Lawmakers in at least 13 states have put so-called “captive audience” bans on the books. To varying degrees, these laws prohibit businesses from compelling workers to attend meetings meant to discuss employers’ “political” or “religious” opinions, and in multiple states, plaintiffs’ challenges have been dismissed for lack of standing.
That’s not the case in California. This week, the Ninth Circuit affirmed a lower court ruling that the state’s law violates employers’ freedom of speech under the First Amendment. The lawsuit was brought by the California Chamber of Commerce and other business groups, and last fall, a federal district judge issued an injunction on the grounds that the law failed to distinguish between “coercive” and “non-coercive” speech. The judge therefore found that the ban illegally interfered with employers’ right to use “non-coercive” speech to discuss unionization.
This is the first U.S. appeals court ruling on the merits after a lawsuit challenging one of these state bans. We’ll have further analysis on the Ninth Circuit’s reasoning, which went deep into First Amendment analysis.
Shawn Fain is declining a job no one offered to him:
UAW President Shawn Fain recently learned that he’s keeping his current job after winning reelection, and he has no interest in going any higher.
Or at least, that’s how he responded during the Detroit News Political Insider podcast when asked about any political intentions. Fain has “no plans” to run for U.S. president, which might make readers breathe a sigh of relief, but this news is slightly bittersweet, since we’ll never learn what his campaign’s “Eat the Rich” signs would look like.
During that same interview, Fain also responded to the UAW election’s low turnout of 10% of eligible members casting their ballots for officers. This turnout, he says, is down to people being “so busy right now.” If Fain really believes that people are too busy to vote, then why is he investing time on the campaign trail to stump in the U.S. midterm elections? One question that wasn’t asked of Fain during this interview, however, is how he feels about only receiving 57% of the vote in Region 1, which isn’t too far from the union’s Solidarity House headquarters.
The NLRB found Tesla’s IT policy to be lawful:
Let’s back up a moment and look at how this case started.
In 2023, Workers United tried to organize Tesla’s facility in Buffalo, NY. The day after the union announced the drive, Tesla issued an IT policy that prohibited workers from handling “Tesla Business Information” in certain ways, like recording meetings or forwarding work emails or documents to personal accounts. The policy also prohibited using Tesla’s IT systems for “creating channels or distribution lists” or soliciting for any political/religious causes.
Ex-General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo alleged that Tesla’s policy was meant to discourage organizing. She later dropped that allegation while continuing to argue that the policy was “overbroad in scope” and should be interpreted under Stericycle, the Biden-era standard that puts virtually any workplace rule at risk if it could be interpreted as an attempt to prevent protected activity.
This week, the NLRB chose not to apply Stericycle and, instead, turned to Caesars Entertainment, which allows employers to restrict “non-business” use of company IT unless there is proof that this restriction is discriminatory or deprives workers of a reasonable way to communicate. The Board found Tesla’s IT policy to be lawful under this analysis.
In a footnote to the NLRB’s decision, David Prouty agreed that Caesars should apply but indicated that he’s open to reconsidering Caesars as a standard in a future case. Meanwhile, the majority signaled openness to reevaluating Stericycle in the future. And in a recent guidance memo, General Counsel Crystal Carey said she wants to see Stericycle overturned when the Honeywell International case comes before the Board.
UPS’ current leader will stick around for upcoming Teamsters talks:
UPS CEO Carol Tomé, who is 69 years old, revealed that she has no plans to depart her role until after the next Teamsters contract is in place. The current agreement will expire on July 31, 2028, and follows 2023’s contentious negotiations that resulted in senior full-time drivers earning upwards of $170,000 annually in wages and benefits. That eye-popping development was followed by the company experiencing lost volume, shuttering facilities, and conducting multiple driver buyout settlements.
Throughout these events, Teamsters President Sean O’Brien has not hesitated to write union fiction accusing UPS of “corporate greed,” and recently, he declared that he expects 2028 negotiations “to be a battle and we are probably going to strike UPS.” O’Brien also said, “I cannot wait to get to the bargaining table to address our members’ concerns, but also to hold this company accountable,” but of course, he neglected to admit any responsibility for job losses after dramatically hiking UPS’ labor costs.
This week in healthcare labor relations:
- In Boston, Brigham and Women’s Hospital nurses rejected their employer’s “last, best, and final” offer. In early July, around 4,000 Brigham nurses went on a one-day strike, and that walkout extended into a weeklong lockout so that the hospital could fulfill its contractual commitments to travel nurses. Ahead of the most recent contract vote, the union delayed plans for an open-ended strike, but we’ll watch for further claims from the Massachusetts Nurses Association.
- At Boston Medical Center, around 2,000 nurses ratified their new contract. Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Healthcare Workers East claimed that the new three-year deal increased first-year nurses’ wages from $38.05 to $42.63 within two years. Additionally, the deal limits the hospital’s use of travel nurses.
- At Providence Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital in Santa Rosa, CA, around 800 registered nurses went on a two-day strike this week. The healthcare system said that the union hadn’t even hinted at a strike during the parties’ 10 bargaining sessions but gave a 10-day strike notice as soon as federal mediation was agreed to by both sides.
- At Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, around 1,500 nurses authorized a strike amid ongoing negotiations between the hospital and SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania.
