NLRB seeks ban on favored Amazon tactic

The general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) will seek to have mandatory anti-union meetings during work hours banned.

Jennifer Abruzzo, a President Biden appointee, said in a memo released Thursday that the meetings violate the National Labor Relations Act.

The meetings, a favorite tactic of employers like Amazon, discourage workers from exercising their right not to listen to employer speech about their workplace rights, she argued.

“This license to coerce is an anomaly in labor law, inconsistent with the Act’s protection of employees’ free choice. It is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of employers’ speech rights,” Abruzzo wrote in the memo. “I believe that the NLRB case precedent, which has tolerated such meetings, is at odds with fundamental labor-law principles, our statutory language, and our Congressional mandate.”