Labor Board General Counsel Outlines Priorities

Newly-installed National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo last week outlined a lengthy set of priority issues the Board plans to address, many of which aim to overturn Trump-era decisions. In laying out these priorities for her staff she stated, “As our country fights a horrific pandemic and returns from an unprecedented economic recession, it is critical that the NLRB vigorously protect the rights of workers to freely associate and act collectively to improve their wages and working conditions. This memo should be seen as a road map for ways in which the Agency will better effectuate its mission and congressional mandate, including protecting the right to engage in concerted activities for mutual aid or protection and encouraging collective bargaining.”

The issues Abruzzo is looking to decide through new cases and potential rulemaking include, in part, employer handbooks, concerted protected activity, confidentiality agreements, union access to workplaces (physically and through e-mail), union dues, worker classification, case-handling procedures and Board authority over religious organizations. NRMCA will be working independently and with industry partners to monitor and advocate for beneficial industry outcomes.

Click here to review General Counsel Abruzzo’s priorities memo. For more information, contact Kevin Walgenbach at kwalgenbach@nrmca.org.