The National Labor Relations board has been busy recently. Among significant actions and rulings, the board:
- released a notice of proposed rulemaking relative to the Joint-Employer standard. Public comments are being accepted until November 7th, and can be accepted electronically or by mail.
- overruled a 2019 Walmart Stores, Inc. decision that provided an employer more leeway in restrictions upon employee wearing of union insignia. In Tesla, Inc., the board ruled that “any attempt to restrict the wearing of union clothing or insignia is presumptively unlawful and – consistent with Supreme Court precedent – an employer has a heightened burden to justify attempts to limit this important right.”
- announced that strike replacement workers have a right to access to union stewards.
- involved the Department of Homeland Security to extend protections to immigrant workers during an NLRB investigation.
- overturned a Trump-era board ruling due to alleged conflict of interest due to former board member William Emanuel’s mutual fund composition. The board is considering other supposed conflict of interest cases involving Emanuel.
PRO Act supporters are ratcheting up efforts to highlight which candidates support the Act in the run-up to the November elections. The effort is hoping to bring a vote on the Act to the Senate floor, so that voters in key states like Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, New Hampshire, Nevada, Virginia, Ohio, Wisconsin and Florida can see who does and does not support the bill. Meanwhile Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) and Representative Brad Sherman (D-California) reintroduced the Nationwide Right to Unionize act, designed to prohibit state right-to-work laws.
