In a huge win for workers across the U.S., the NLRB just announced an incredible pro-worker policy: Banning ‘captive audience meetings.’
A classic union-busting tactic, captive audience meetings have long been a way for employers to get workers to sit through anti-union propaganda, by forcing them to do so under the threat of discipline if they don’t attend.
But the current pro-worker NLRB is under threat, as Chairman Lauren McFerran’s term expires on December 16th. She has been re-nominated, but the Senate has not acted to confirm her.
Meanwhile, workers’ rights as we’ve known them for nearly 100 years are under attack. Corporations including Amazon, SpaceX, and Trader Joe’s are challenging the constitutionality of the National Labor Relations Act itself in court. Project 2025 contains a detailed plan to undermine worker protections. Even OSHA’s proposed heat standard, which would provide rest and water to workers in extreme heat conditions, is under threat.
The bottom line: the Biden administration needs to do everything it can, now, to protect worker rights before Trump takes office.
The Board consists of five members serving five year terms. Right now, Chair Lauren McFerran’s term expires on December 16, 2024 and in order for her to keep her seat, the Senate must confirm her in its final session of 2024.
Why is this important?
If Lauren McFerran is confirmed now, the Board can hold a pro-worker majority until 2026. If she is not confirmed, Trump will get to fill not one but two Board seats, essentially guaranteeing the Board will shift to a conservative majority after Trump takes office.
Of course, we can’t predict the future. Trump could wildly break precedent by firing the entire Board and replacing them with his own appointees, or find a way to keep the Board from functioning at all. We do know this: workers will continue to organize one way or another, no matter what happens in the next four years.
The NLRB’s mission is to protect our rights as workers to organize, form unions, and bargain collectively. At a time when workers’ rights are already under threat, we need to do everything we can to safeguard these functions–and that includes not surrendering control of the Board to the same ideologies that are attacking its right to exist.
The Board has long played a crucial role in protecting workers’ rights and helping us hold our employers accountable. We need to do everything we can, right now, to preserve that.
In solidarity,
The Labor Force
Leave a Reply