NLRB Rules Anti-Union Captive Audience Meetings Illegal

In a major victory for working people, the National Labor Relations Board issued a decision Wednesday ruling that mandatory anti-union captive audience meetings are illegal. In its Amazon.com Services LLC ruling it found that an employer violates the National Labor Relations Act by requiring employees under threat of discipline or firing to attend meetings in which the employer expresses its views on unionization.

“Ensuring that workers can make a truly free choice about whether they want union representation is one of the fundamental goals of the National Labor Relations Act. Captive audience meetings — which give employers near-unfettered freedom to force their message about unionization on workers under threat of discipline or discharge — undermine this important goal,” said NLRB Chairman Lauren McFerran. “Today’s decision better protects workers’ freedom to make their own choices in exercising their rights under the Act, while ensuring that employers can convey their views about unionization in a noncoercive manner.”

NLRB members David Prouty and Gwynne Wilcox joined Chairman Lauren McFerran in supporting the decision. Trump appointee Marvin Kaplan opposed the ruling. Overruling a 1948 NLRB decision, the Board explained that captive-audience meetings violate Section 8(a)(1) of the National Labor Relations Act because they have a “reasonable tendency to interfere with and coerce employees” in their right to organize.

In 2023, Maine also passed a law that allows workers to opt out of attending captive audience meetings concerning religion, politics or unionization.