Management Memo

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 ...