The National Labor Relations Board, already under attack from conservatives concerned about regulatory overreach, is requiring that businesses must post information in the workplace telling employees about their rights to unionize.
In a move that angered business groups and cheered labor leaders, the NLRB’s new regulations mandate that companies display notices “in conspicuous places” that inform workers about their right to unionize.
The notices must tell employees that they have the right to strike and picket under certain circumstances; to form or join a union; to bargain collectively; to raise work-related complaints with a federal agency or union; or to decline to do any of those things.
The NLRB has come under fire lately from Republicans and conservatives unhappy with the agency’s decision to sue Boeing for deciding to build a new aircraft assembly plant in South Carolina, where unions are weak. The agency alleges that Boeing did so in order to retaliate against unionized workers in Washington state who struck the company.
Richard L. Trumka, the A.F.L.-C.I.O.’s president, praised the new rule.
“The rule is a responsible and much-needed step,” Trumka said in a statement, according to the Times. “Just as employers are required to notify their employees of their rights around health and safety, wages, and discrimination on the job, this rule gives clear information to employees about their rights under this fundamental labor law so that workers are better equipped to exercise and enforce them.”
