Biden boss prevents businesses from forcing workers to hear their thoughts on unions

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) of the Biden administration issued an opinion on Wednesday that businesses can express their opinions through union meetings to a “captive audience” of workers.

The decision was in response to a series of employee complaints issued against Amazon for mandatory meetings where company representatives allegedly urged employees to reject unionization. According to the board, such meetings violate the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), which was passed in 1935 to protect workers' ability to organize.

“Ensuring that workers can truly freely choose whether they want union representation is one of the important goals of the National Labor Relations Act. Captive audience meetings—which give employers almost black freedom to force their message about unionization on vulnerable workers. Discipline or layoff—undermine this important goal. ,” said NLRB Chairwoman Lauren McFerran in a press release on Wednesday we better protect workers' freedom of choice in exercising their rights under the Act, while ensuring that employers are able to express their views on union formation in a non-coercive manner.”

The NLRB, an independent federal agency chaired by President Biden, has outlined several reasons why it believes “captive audience” meetings violate the law.

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Among them was that these meetings violated the rights of workers under Section 7 of the NLRA. Section 7 protects the ability of workers to engage, or not to engage, in “concerted efforts” for purposes of collective bargaining.

This decision left employers with the right to participate in voluntary meetings to express their views on the establishment of unions.

Members of the United Auto Workers and others gather for a rally after marching in the Detroit Labor Day Parade on September 4, 2023 in Detroit. (Getty)

In a dissenting opinion, the NLRB's only Republican member, Marvin Kaplan, wrote that the board's decision to ban “captive audience” meetings was “clearly unconstitutional.”

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“The majority's attempt to prevent so-called 'captive audience speech' goes back to an earlier era when the Board sought to impose upon employers a policy of neutrality with respect to unionization,” Kaplan wrote.

Members of the Boeing manufacturers union picket outside a Boeing factory on September 13, 2024 in Renton, Washington. The union voted overwhelmingly to reject the planemaker's contract and strike. (Getty)

Meanwhile, an Amazon spokesperson echoed Kaplan's points in a statement to the Courthouse News Service.

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“This decision ignores more than 75 years of precedent, contradicts the clear language of the NLRA, and violates the First Amendment — it is factually and legally wrong, and we intend to appeal,” said Amazon spokeswoman Mary Kate Paradis. “Meetings like this are held by many companies because the decision about whether or not to join a union is important – and workers need to understand the facts so they can make an informed choice.”

Neither the NLRB nor Amazon responded to questions from Fox News Digital by the time of publication.