One Voice Coalition Defeats NLRB Poster Rule
On May 7, 2013 U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia struck down the National Labor Relations Board “Poster Rule.” The rule would require businesses to display posters informing employees of their right to join a union. This is a major victory for One Voice members who have fought against the rule since the NLRB first issued the requirement in 2011.
The Court found that the NLRB violated employers’ free speech rights in trying to force them to display the posters or face charges of committing an unfair labor practice. The Court ruled that the National Labor Relations Act protects the right of an employer not to post material that they find objectionable and that “the right to speak” afforded under the act also includes “the right not to speak.”
This ruling comes on the heels of other major victories One Voice has had in the last year for employees and employers including the defeat of the “ambush elections” rule and the ruling of President Obama’s recess appointments to the NLRB as unconstitutional. The NLRB can still appeal the Poster Rule decision to the Supreme Court where we are also waiting to hear if the Justices will consider an appeal of our win in the “recess appointments” case against the NLRB. The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill, H.R. 1120 which bars the NLRB from issuing new rules until it has a quorum and bars new appointments from taking their seats until the U.S. Supreme Court decides whether to hear the NLRB’s challenge. One Voice, along with our coalition partners, continues to aggressively challenge the actions of the board to stop ill-conceived regulations and rules interpretations with negative impacts on metalworking manufacturers.