AFL-CIO Applauds NLRB Decision to Ban Captive Audience Meetings

AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler released the following statement in response to the decision from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to ban coercive “captive audience” meetings:

Today, the NLRB again demonstrated its commitment to working people with the decision to ban captive audience meetings, a coercive tool bosses regularly use to gain an unfair advantage before union elections. As part of well-funded and aggressive anti-union campaigns—regularly involving threats of discipline, site closure, wage and job cuts, and threatening immigrant workers with deportation—employers force employees to listen to anti-union speeches, often multiple times, preventing employees from asking questions or even politely leaving the meeting. These coercive meetings are well-known union-busting tools, and the practice has no place in America’s workplaces or in our democracy. Thanks to the NLRB, that ends today. 

In siding with Amazon workers, the board has affirmed that captive audience meetings are an affront to worker freedom and that companies will finally be held accountable for this anti-worker behavior. Corporations may pour millions in their efforts to union-bust, but the AFL-CIO won’t rest until every worker is free to organize and fight together for a better workplace. We applaud the board and General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo for their leadership in ending this predatory practice.