NLRB Rules Captive Audience Meetings Violate the NLRA

The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) severely limits the steps employers can take to oppose union organizing activity. For years, the one weapon they had at their disposal was "captive audience meetings." Yesterday, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) overruled precedent from 1948(!):

Not official use.

[A]n employer violates the National Labor Relations Act by requiring employees under threat of discipline or discharge to attend meetings in which the employer expresses its views on unionization.

Press release here | Full decision in Amazon Services LLC here. Can employers still hold meetings to express their views on unionization at all? Yes, but under very narrow circumstances:

[T]he Board made clear that an employer may lawfully hold meetings with workers to express its views on unionization so long as workers are provided reasonable advance notice of: the subject of any such meeting, that attendance is voluntary with no adverse consequences for failure to attend, and that no attendance records of the meeting will be kept. 

Now, you may have heard . . . we have a new Presidential administration coming in January. I don't condone gambling on administrative agency decisions, but if I had to bet . . . we'll see a reversal at some point in the next four years (either in the courts or at the NLRB).