National Labor Relations Act Update

The past year certainly has been a year of significant change and controversy at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Although the furor concerning the possibly enactment of the Employee Free Choice Act has subsided, at least temporarily, the NLRB found numerous ways to make headlines. Among the issues that have arisen have been: a series of complaints and decisions involving employee use of Facebook and social media; the General Counsel’s challenge to The Boeing Company’s decision to establish a production facility for its highly publicized Dreamliner aircraft in South Carolina, allegedly because of strike activity at its existing facilities; the NLRB’s planned implementation of a requirement that all employers post a statement of employees’ National Labor Relation Act rights at the worksite and its proposal to modify its election procedures; and a series of NLRB decisions overturning several very recent precedents in a manner that many employers believe is unfavorable. These and other notable developments are discussed in the article.