Can employers tell you not to unionize?
Interference with Employee Rights (Sections 7 & 8(a)(1))
Employees possess the right to unionize, collaborate to promote their interests, and choose not to participate in such activities. It is illegal for employers to interfere with, restrain, or coerce employees in exercising these rights. For instance, employers are prohibited from responding to a union organizing effort with threats, interrogations, or surveillance of pro-union employees, or by offering benefits in exchange for abandoning union support.
Section 7 Rights
Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (the Act) guarantees employees:
The right to self-organization
The ability to form, join, or assist labor organizations
The opportunity to bargain collectively through representatives of their choice
The right to engage in other concerted activities for collective bargaining or mutual aid and protection
The right to refrain from any or all such activities
Section 8(a)(1) Unfair Labor Practices
Section 8(a)(1) of the Act defines it as an unfair labor practice for an employer to interfere with, restrain, or coerce employees in exercising the rights outlined in Section 7. Examples of prohibited actions include:
Threatening employees with negative outcomes, such as workplace closure, loss of benefits, or harsher working conditions, if they support a union, engage in union activities, or select a union representative.
Threatening adverse consequences for participating in protected, concerted activities.
Promising benefits to employees who reject the union.
Implying a promise of benefits by soliciting grievances from employees during a union organizing campaign, unless grievances were regularly solicited prior to the campaign.
Offering benefits during a union organizing campaign to persuade employees against voting for the union.
Delaying wage or benefit changes during a union organizing campaign that would have occurred regardless of the union's presence, unless it is made clear that the changes will happen irrespective of union selection.
Coercively questioning employees about their own or coworkers' union activities or sympathies.
Prohibiting employees from discussing union matters during work hours if they allow discussions on other non-work-related topics.
Polling employees about their union support without adhering to specific safeguards, including avoiding unfair labor practices and ensuring confidentiality and assurance against reprisals.
Spying on employees' union activities or creating the impression of surveillance.
Photographing or videotaping employees participating in peaceful union or protected activities.
Soliciting individual employees to feature in a campaign video.
Enforcing work rules that may inhibit employees from exercising their rights under the Act.
Denying off-duty employees access to nonworking areas of the property without valid business reasons.
Restricting employees from wearing union buttons, t-shirts, or other insignia unless justified by special circumstances.
Conveying the impression that choosing a union would be futile.
Disciplining or discharging a union-represented employee for refusing to attend an investigatory interview without a representative when they reasonably believe it could lead to discipline.
Interviewing employees to prepare a defense in an unfair labor practice case without providing necessary assurances, ensuring the context is free from hostility regarding union organization, and limiting questioning to what is essential.
Initiating or supporting a decertification or union-disaffection petition.
Taking adverse actions against employees due to their protected, concerted activities.
