Iowa Rep. Steven King has reintroduced legislation to protect employers from NLRB charges if they refuse to hire a paid union organizer or “salt”. Surprisingly, under current law, an employer cannot “discriminate” against a union salt simply because the potential exists for egregious policy violation or conflict of interest. The NLRA also protects a salt, just like any other employee, from termination for union activity, even if a union is paying for that activity, as long as the salt continues to meet minimal job requirements. The Truth in Employment Act H.R. 2153 would add the following disclaimer to Section 8(a) of the NLRA: “Nothing in this subsection shall be construed as requiring an employer to employ any person who seeks or has sought employment with the employer in furtherance of other employment or agency status.” A salt typically receives two paychecks, one from a union and one from the targeted employer, and he or she reports regularly to a supervisor from the union. A salt can spend months on your company clock doing the least required to keep his job while busy harvesting sensitive data and documents for use in a union’s corporate attack campaign or “mapping” your workplace for a card drive. If a salt has done their first job well the union will have schedules, complete contact information on employees, clients, vendors and management as well as research on potential shop floor leaders and organizing issues all without the salt ever revealing his true intent and long before a single employee has even been approached about a union.
