National Labor Relations Board Moves Towards Banning Captive Audience Meetings Amidst Activision Blizzard Unionization Movement

thegamer.com:

Chief Counsel at the National Labor Relations Board Jennifer Abruzzo recently proposed a ban on captive audience meetings amidst the ongoing movement towards unionization at Activision Blizzard. These involve employers forcing workers to attend anti-union meetings. Activision Blizzard has been criticized by workers for employing this tactic in the past.

Abruzzo issued a memorandum calling on the National Labor Relations Board to declare captive audience meetings illegal under the National Labor Relations Act earlier this week. The document describes workplaces where “employers routinely hold mandatory meetings in which employees are forced to listen to employer speech concerning the exercise of their statutory labor rights, especially during organizing campaigns.”

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Abruzzo pointed out how “those meetings inherently involve an unlawful threat that employees will be disciplined or suffer other reprisals if they exercise their protected right not to listen to such speech” before adding that “I believe the National Labor Relations Board case precedent, which has tolerated such meetings, is at odds with fundamental labor law principles, our statutory language, and our congressional mandate.”

“Contrary to the basic principles of labor law, the National Labor Relations Board years ago incorrectly concluded that an employer does not violate the Labor Relations Act by compelling its employees to attend meetings in which it makes speeches urging them to reject union representation,” Abruzzo remarked. “As a result, employers commonly use express or implicit threats to force employees into meetings concerning