Workers Testify in Support of Bill to Ban Captive Audience Meetings

On Tuesday, members of the Maine State Nurses Association and non-union workers testified in support of a billwould crack down on employee intimidation during union drives. LD 1756, sponsored by Sen. Mattie Daughtry (D-Cumberland), would strengthen our Constitutional right to Freedom of Association by prohibiting employers to force employees to attend these type of captive audience meetings to be lectured about unions, politics and religion.

This is a very common tactic that employers use to defeat union drives and has been deployed recently at numerous workplaces in Maine, including Maine Medical Center and Shalom House. Jillian Gruber, a residential support workers at Shalom House in Portland, described how the publicly funded social service agency pulled employees away from their clients to attend mandatory anti-union captive audience meetings after the workers filed their union petition.

"At the anti-union meeting, I felt talked down to and my concerns dismissed. My coworkers and I did not have a fair and equal opportunity to discuss anti-union claims that were being made, nor did it feel like a safe environment to do so," said Gruber. "Administrative employees and managers who are not part of the bargaining unit were interspersed in the audience of the meeting in a way that felt manipulative, isolating, and pressuring. I left the meeting with a greater sense of mistrust, and I witnessed a coworker immediately call their supervisor to resign after the meeting because of what they experienced."

Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey testified in support of the bill, arguing that it protects both an employer’s right to speak to their employees about religious and political matters as well as an employee’s right to be free from retaliation if they decline to listen.

"At its root, this is an anti-retaliation measure," said Frey. "Employees should have the right to go to work without having to fear for their jobs if they choose not to listen to political or religious speech that is unrelated to their employment duties."

Anti-union lobbyists who opposed the bill included the National Federation of Independent Businesses, Hospitality Maine, whose members include several Maine restaurants, bars and lodging establishments, and the Maine Grocers & Food Producers Association, whose members include large corporations like Poland Spring, Coke and tobacco giant Altria, as well as Hannaford, Shaw's Supermarket, chocolate bar maker Bixby & Co. and Coffee By Design.