NLRB

DC’S Union Kitchen Slapped With 26 Counts Of Labor Law Violation

November 10, 2022 Colleen Grablick, DCist. Resist! NLRB, Restaurants, union busting, Wage Theft, Washington D.C., Worker Rights and Jobs

Washington D.C. - The National Labor Relations Board has determined that Union Kitchen violated several labor laws and engaged in union-busting tactics as workers sought to unionize earlier this year, and that management continued to do so throughout the bargaining process, after workers succeeded in formalizing their unit this summer. According to an NLRB complaint reviewed by DCist/WAMU, management at the food retailer wrongfully terminated several employees, interrogated workers about their union activity, hosted mandatory “captive audience” meetings where workers were encouraged to reject organizing efforts, and tried to offer special benefits if workers distanced themselves from the union drive.

How To Win NLRB Cases Against Union-Busters

October 30, 2022 Phil Cohen, Labor Notes. Strategize! Labor Movement, NLRB, union busting, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

As big brands like Amazon, Starbucks, and Chipotle lash back at worker organizing, union-busting is getting long overdue exposure in the press. But while the stories graphically depict the problem, they don’t offer any solutions. Though many of the common tactics of union-busting are illegal, there are only insignificant penalties that fail to discourage its lucrative practice. This is the only area of law where attorneys can advise clients to commit perjury in federal court without fear of disbarment or even censure. A union leader who understands leverage and human nature, though, can unmask their deception. Union-busting on a plant-wide scale usually takes place under three circumstances: organizing drives, first contract negotiations, and attempts to decertify an existing local.

America Is Breaking The Bargain It Made For Labor Peace

July 18, 2022 Hamilton Nolan, In These Times. Strategize! Labor Movement, NLRB, Worker Rights and Jobs

The American labor movement finds itself in a “good news, bad news” situation — which is better than the standard “bad news, bad news” situation, but just as perilous. This week, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) announced that in the past nine months, petitions that workers have filed to unionize with the agency have risen by 56% over the previous year. This is a clear and tangible sign of what public opinion polls have already told us: In the aftermath of the pandemic, with a union-friendly president in the White House, workers are more enthusiastic to form unions than they have been in many years. Organized labor is always pining for a moment of opportunity, and that opportunity is here. Right now. Then there’s the bad news. In the same press release trumpeting the boom in union election filings, NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo made a pointed case that the institution is starved for resources.

The NLRB Is Underfunded And Understaffed

July 7, 2022 Gay Semel, Labor Notes. Educate! Joe Biden, Labor Movement, NLRB, Worker Rights

The budget for the National Labor Relations Board for fiscal year 2022 was $274 million, which might sound like a lot of money. But it is the same amount as the Board’s budget for Trump-era fiscal years 2021 and 2020, and that is a problem. In fact, the NLRB has not had an increase in funding since 2014, the year that the Republicans took control of Congress during the Obama administration and reignited their decades-old campaign to deep-six workers’ rights to unionize. No increase “means a cut to the agency’s funds, due to inflation and other factors,” explains Burt Pearlstone, president of the NLRBU, the union representing workers at the agency.

Fired Starbucks Workers Bring Their Fight Directly To The CEO

April 30, 2022 James Dennis Hoff, Left Voice. Resist! Labor Unions, NLRB, Starbucks, Worker Rights

Sanchez and McGlawn are two of the seven workers, known as the “Memphis Seven,” who were fired by Starbucks in February, just weeks after they announced their plans to form a union there. In a blatantly illegal move, the company terminated the workers (about a third of the entire staff) for supposedly violating company policy after they met with reporters in the store to talk about unionization efforts. But almost all of the workers who were fired were involved in organizing for the union, and it is clear that the terminations were a direct act of retaliation designed to crush these workers’ efforts to form a union and put an end to the unionization wave spreading throughout the company. The National Labor Relations Board has called the firings illegal, and has already filed complaints against the company.

Amazon Unionization Efforts Get A Boost Under A Settlement With NLRB

December 27, 2021 Associated Press, Reader Supported News. Organize! Amazon, NLRB, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

According to the settlement, the online behemoth Amazon said it would reach out to its warehouse workers — former and current — via email who were on the job anytime from March 22 to now to notify them of their organizing rights. The settlement outlines that Amazon workers, which number 750,000 in the U.S., have more room to organize within the buildings. For example, Amazon pledged it will not threaten workers with discipline or call the police when they are engaging in union activity in exterior non-work areas during non-work time. According to the terms of the settlement, the labor board will be able to more easily sue Amazon— without going through a laborious process of administrative hearings — if it found that the online company reneged on its agreement.

Win For Alabama Amazon Workers

November 30, 2021 Jessica Corbett, Commondreams. Organize! Alabama, Amazon, Labor Union, NLRB

In a victory for employees at an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, a federal labor official on Monday formally directed a new union election following allegations that the company engaged in illegal misconduct leading up to an unsuccessful vote in April. Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union (RWDSU), celebrated the order from National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Region 10 Director Lisa Henderson, which a spokesperson for the agency confirmed to multiple media outlets. "Today's decision confirms what we were saying all along—that Amazon's intimidation and interference prevented workers from having a fair say in whether they wanted a union in their workplace—and as the regional director has indicated, that is both unacceptable and illegal," Appelbaum said.

NLRB Reversing Important Labor Law Precedents

September 4, 2019 By Bobbi Murray, Capitalandmain.com Educate! Labor, NLRB, Reform, Repression

Employee rights advocates say this Labor Day’s family barbecues and union solidarity picnics will take place in the shadow of a Trump administration that has quietly stacked the National Labor Relations Board with anti-labor members. The federal agency is far less well-known than the IRS or EPA, but its five presidential appointees issue rulings with often far-reaching consequences for America’s working men and women. The NLRB was created in 1935 to oversee collective bargaining and protect labor standards...

Seeds Of Labor War Are Fertilized By The NLRB

September 4, 2019 Hamilton Nolan, Splinternews.com Resist! Class Struggle, Labor Movement, NLRB

Inherent in the ridiculous human condition is the necessity that we continually relearn lessons of the past, the hard way. Such is the case today. Guess what happens when the government and power structure forsake labor peace? Labor war. Yesterday, the National Labor Relations Board—the governmental body charged with protecting workers’ rights—ruled that “Employers don’t violate federal labor law by misclassifying their workers as independent contractors instead of employees.” Which is to say, they ruled that breaking law is not a violation of labor law.

NLRB Deals Major Blow To Fight For 15

April 1, 2018 Max Zahn, In These Times. Strategize! Fight for 15, Labor Rights, NLRB

The reported settlement of a landmark case against McDonald’s at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) deals a blow to Fight for $15’s union ambitions, widening the chasm between the campaign’s astonishingly successful wage demand and its faltering union aspirations. The settlement, negotiated by Trump-appointed NLRB General Counsel Peter Robb, requires McDonald’s to pay damages for retaliatory measures taken against workers who organized with Fight for $15. However, the agreement prevents a ruling in the case, dealing a blow to labor.

Murphy Oil May Be The Last Workers’ Rights Case

August 15, 2017 Celine McNicholas, www.portside.org Educate! NLRB, Workers, Workers Rights and Jobs

By Celine McNicholas for Portside - Yesterday, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) filed its brief in NLRB v.Murphy Oil, which will be argued in the Supreme Court in October. The case will determine whether mandatory arbitration agreements with individual workers that prevent them from pursuing work-related claims collectively are prohibited by the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). The brief makes clear what is at stake for workers if the Supreme Court were to rule against the NLRB in this matter. The NLRA guarantees workers the right to stand together for “mutual aid and protection” when seeking to improve their wages and working conditions. Employer interference with this right is prohibited. However, increasingly, employers are requiring workers to sign arbitration agreements that force them to waive their rights to collective actions, and handle workplace disputes as individuals. In practice, that means that even if many workers faced the same type of dispute at work, each individual employee must hire their own lawyer, and must resolve their disputes out of court, behind closed doors, with only their employer and a private arbitrator.

NLRB Allows Graduate Students At Private Universities To Unionize

August 24, 2016 Mark Joseph Stern, www.slate.com Create! Graduate School, NLRB, Students, Unions, University

By Mark Joseph Stern for Slate - On Tuesday, the National Labor Relations Board ruled that graduate students employed by private universities are permitted to unionize under federal law. The 3–1 decision reversed a previous NLRB ruling that barred these students from unionizing in 2004. Every Ivy League school opposed the decision, which was spurred by Columbia University’s efforts to shut down a union drive on campus. The critical question at issue in this litigation was whether students employed by a private university are “employees” as defined by the National Labor Relations Act.

NLRB Confirms Legality of Union Support for Israel Boycott

July 24, 2016 Staff, www.ueunion.org Resist! BDS, Israel-Palestine, NLRB, United Electrical Workers

By Staff of United Electrical Workers. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has reaffirmed its dismissal an unfair labor practice charge brought by an Israeli law firm against a U.S. union, the United Electrical Workers, over its support of protests against Israeli policies including the union’s endorsement of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS) movement. At its national convention in Baltimore August 16-20, 2015, the United Electrical Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) adopted a resolution endorsing the BDS movement to pressure Israel to negotiate peace with the Palestinians and end the occupation. UE is the first national U.S. union to endorse BDS. Read the resolution here. On October 23, the Israeli law firm Shurat Hadin filed a charge with the NLRB alleging that UE’s resolution violated the prohibition in U.S. labor law against “secondary boycotts.” The union disputed the charge, arguing that Shurat Hadin’s action was an attempt to interfere with the First Amendment rights of the union and its members to express opinions on political and international issues, and also that the Israeli firm’s allegation were factually untrue. On January 12, Region 6 of the NLRB dismissed the charge.

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