In essence, as Fast Company reports, it would make it a lot easier for workers to join a union - something that contrasts with continually declining union membership, even as approval for unions reaches 68%, according to Gallup. That's an older standard that essentially says if workers have formed a union - and that the majority of them support it - employers should have to bargain with them, unless they "good faith doubt" that the majority of workers are onboard.Ĭurrently, employers can opt to either voluntarily recognize their workers' union, or compel them to vote in a formal NLRB election. On Monday, according to a Twitter thread from Abruzzo's office, she submitted a brief urging the board to reinstate the Joy Silk doctrine. There's already pushback from business: Sean Redmond, the vice president for labor policy at the right-leaning US Chamber of Commerce, wrote that if Abruzzo's proposal was accepted, "it would deliberately muzzle employers" and "impede free speech." And Abruzzo is just getting started "Workers don't feel that they can leave, even though they have the right to refrain from listening to speech - just as much as they have the right to listen to it - because of the very real fear of retaliation," Abruzzo said.įor instance, David Isiah Thomas, an Amazon worker in Bessemer, Alabama, filed complaints with the NLRB saying that after Thomas questioned a manager during a captive audience meeting, he "observed the employer's agent circling his work area for no other purpose than to watch him." Even if employers don't make illegal statements during the meetings, "it does have a coercive impact." "Workers are typically subject to a significant number of captive audiences," Abruzzo said. According to the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, from 1999 to 2003, nearly 90% of employers facing union drives had workers attend captive audience meetings - and the majority of them held them weekly during union campaigns. Those are called "captive audience" meetings, and they're popular among bosses.
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