by James Parks, Jan 23, 2008

With less than a year before the Bush administration packs up and moves out, employers and their allies at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) are pulling out every stop to squelch the freedom of workers to form unions. For example, the board now says employers can stop unions from communicating with workers by e-mail.  

It comes as no surprise that employers are practically giddy over the ruling.  

The NLRB—which is supposed to protect workers’ freedom to join a union—issued a decision days before Christmas that an employer can prohibit the use of its e-mail system for “non-job-related solicitations” and not be in violation of federal labor laws.  

AFL-CIO Organizing Director Stewart Acuff says this is  another restriction of workers’ rights by the Bush labor board:

It’s clearly counter to the long-established practice of workers being able to talk to one another at the job about unions and their rights. 

Now listen to how Walter Orechwa of Projections Inc., an Atlanta-based management communications company, crows to its clients about the ruling:  

Direct solicitation is the union organizer’s best shot at convincing non-union employees they should join up today. It occurs both inside and outside the workplace.  The most effective method of curbing direct or on-the-job solicitation is to create—and strictly enforce—a no-solicitation, no-distribution policy.  

Now let’s add e-mail use to the mix.  Take this gift from the NLRB and use it well in the coming year—communicating your policy well (and communicating well in general) will only strengthen your employer brand. On the other hand, complacency will open the door very wide for union organizers. This is one resolution with which I hope everyone can stick. 

Orechwa’s company specializes in anti-worker propaganda such as custom-made “union-avoidance” videos like the “Supervisors Can Keep You Union Free” series. The company also has produced classics like a flier describing a union organizing campaign as a “Declaration of War.”  

The New York Times reported the new ruling allows employers to bar union-related e-mail if they also bar workers from sending e-mail for “non-job-related solicitations” for outside organizations—but appears to permit e-mails about organizational activities related to charities. As the Times reports:

In many past cases, the labor board ruled that employers engaged in illegal anti-union discrimination if they barred workers from engaging in union-related speech on bulletin boards or telephones when they allowed workers to communicate on bulletin boards or telephones about other matters.

But as Orechwa gloats about the ruling, the real culprit, Acuff says, is the NLRB, which has issued anti-worker decisions time after time, systematically reducing employees’ freedom to join unions. Acuff says:  

Communication on the job is a necessary prerequisite for concerted action. The NLRB was designed to protect the right to concerted action. This is another fundamental abridgement of workers’ rights by the Bush board.   

In September, the NLRB issued a sweeping set of decisions that made it harder for workers to join unions, harder for workers to collect back pay if illegally fired and easier for employers to discriminate against union supporters. Last year, the board redefined the term “supervisor,” making it easier for employers to bar millions of worker from eligibility for union membership.

In fact, the board’s actions over the past seven years have been so egregious that the AFL-CIO has sought international assistance, filing a complaint with the International Labor Organization, part of the United Nations, charging the NLRB with denying workers’ rights in violation of international labor standards. 

As AFL-CIO President John Sweeney says: 

Under Bush, America’s labor board has so failed our nation’s workers that we must now turn to the world’s international watchdogs to monitor and intervene. 

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