Management Memo

In the past week media reports abound regarding a controversial allegedly "anti-union" statement made by a high level executive associated with the iconic snack cake Twinkies.  As widely reported late last year, the original Twinkie maker, Hostess Brands, Inc.,  was forced to close, liquidate and lay off its entire unionized workforce, publicly blaming the recalcitrance of its unions for the company's downfall.  However, these statements did not cause this most recent controversy.  Rather, it was comments from an executive connected with Hostess Brands LLC, the newly formed ...

It seems with each passing month the National Labor Relations Board or its Acting General Counsel opens yet another new front on its assault on non-union employers.  A trend has emerged which puts labor law in conflict with standard employment practices.  From hire, to control of the workplace and employer property, to the manner post-termination disputes are handled, the NLRB is directing employers to ignore conventional wisdom, and often times other legal mandates, to alter the way they deal with their employees.

Much attention has been given to the NLRB’s more direct pro-union ...

Over the past year the NLRB has issued a series of decisions which, taken together, mark a dramatic shift in the property rights of employers and expand the right of employees seeking to use their employer’s property to organize.

Two decades ago, in Lechmere, Inc. v. NLRB, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that employers had a right to limit or deny non-employee union organizers access to their property provided the denial was nondiscriminatory and consistent with state law.  For almost four decades, following its decision in Tri-County Medical Center, Inc., the NLRB has maintained that ...