As this Christmas edition of INK is coming out early, there hasn’t been a lot of regulatory or court action since the November issue.
If there’s one thing President Trump has taught us, it’s that not every sentiment should be memorialized in a tweet. In FDRLST Media, LLC, the NLRB called an executive to task for such a tweet, even though there was no union organizing drive in progress. The tweet? “FYI @fdrlst first one of you tries to unionize I swear I’ll send you back to the salt mine”. The tweet was ruled an unlawful restraint on protected concerted activity. Interestingly, it wasn’t even an employee that filed the unfair labor practice charge. A key takeaway: the Board’s only inquiry into whether a statement is coercive is to look at the words themselves.
Almost a year after the National Right To Work Foundation filed an unfair labor practice charge against the Yotel Boston hotel, the NLRB upheld the charge, claiming that the hotel signed an agreement with the union during the organizing drive providing access by the union to non-public parts of the facility, and expressed support for the union drive, illegally pressuring employees to sign cards. Virtual hearings will begin in March.
Google is in the spotlight again, as a group of employees were fired for protesting against company policies and attempting to organize a union. The board issued a complaint and will take the matter before an Administrative Law Judge in April. Google claims its actions were lawful and that the employees’ actions were a “serious violation of our policies and an unacceptable breach of a trusted responsibility.”
